


The Quest is a Metaphor

by CameraLux (TinCanTelephone)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Flirting, Bar fights, Campfires, Canon Compliant, Deep Conversations, Denial of Feelings, Eventual Romance, F/M, Flirting, Jealousy, Post-Canon, Post-War, Slow Burn, Subtext, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22830055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinCanTelephone/pseuds/CameraLux
Summary: After a bitter end to his long-term relationship, Sokka finds himself directionless and alone. Luckily, soon after leaving Kyoshi Island he runs into an old friend.Or, in which Sokka finally learns to focus less on thewhereand more on thegoing.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar) (background), Mai/Zuko (Avatar) (background), Toph Beifong/Sokka
Comments: 153
Kudos: 403





	1. The Runaways

**Author's Note:**

> Tokka, obviously, taking place c.109 AG or thereabouts– the point is Sokka and Toph are in their early-mid twenties
> 
> Basically, I started this fic around 3-ish years ago, wrote around 800 words and then got distracted with other things. 3 computers and 2 changes of writing software later, I re-watched the series and realized I still had that old fic idea hanging around, and maybe it was high time I got on that! 
> 
> I was also encouraged by the wealth of Tokka fanart out there– which is simply incredible! [This piece](https://lovelyrugbee.tumblr.com/post/50990376617/so-i-have-this-massive-head-canon-that-after) by @lovelyrugbee on Tumblr is particularly fitting for this fic :) 
> 
> Completely A:TLA compliant, and from what I know should allow for LOK compliance as well, although I admit I haven’t seen that series. It should also be comic compliant– but again, I haven’t read them so I had to do some pretty extensive synopsis googling. Hoping for the best I guess haha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: minor period-typical racism and sexism

It was a disgustingly hot day, so hot you could imagine molten rock flowing down the hillside, when Sokka remembered what Aunt Wu told him almost ten years ago. That his future would be "full of struggle and anguish, most of it self inflicted." Sure, it was funny back then, when all it meant was when he threw rocks they'd come right back and hit him in the face, but it was hard to find the humor in it now. Now that he was sitting in the blistering heat surrounded by a few bags containing all of his worldly possessions, waiting for a boat to take him off Kyoshi Island for what was probably the last time.

Aang and Katara had asked Aunt Wu about their love lives, he remembered. Giant saps. During his wedding toast, Aang even recounted how he'd eavesdropped on Katara's palm reading. It was downright nauseating. But while Sokka still maintained that Aunt Wu was the biggest con artist north of Omashu, he couldn't help but think it must have been nice, to be told by a fortune teller that you would find the one you love– and marry them, too. It almost made him wish he'd pushed harder back then, gotten her to do an actual palm reading. Of course, rationally he knew it was all a load of ostrich-horse shit, but then at least he'd have something to go on.

He slapped a wayward fly on his sweaty arm and looked out at the water for the thousandth time. Where in the world was that ferry? He sighed, felt his clothes move uncomfortably across his sticky skin. Against his better judgment, he looked back up the hill.

The academy was in plain view. The new, re-built, expanded edition. He imagined Suki inside, training new recruits. Probably sweating like nobody's business through their thousand layers of clothing if they'd been training since dawn like usual. There'd been a lot of new recruits since the end of the war, and Suki used to talk about how she was whipping them into shape. He could imagine sweat beading at her temples, running down the side of her face and creating lines of skin through white paint. He would laugh at them when she came home in the evening, then he would wash the rest of it off, even though she insisted she could do it herself, but he'd always been eager to expose all of that skin, so he could kiss it, stroke it, admire it. He thought she looked incredible in her full Kyoshi Warrior getup, fierce and powerful. But she was most beautiful when she was just Suki, when her hair was down and uncovered, and you could see the lines of her face when she laughed.

 _Spirits_. Sokka ran a hand over his face, glad for once for the heat, because at this temperature any passerby could mistake tears for sweat. Not that he was actually crying or anything. Nope, he'd already done that. Post-breakup sobbing already accomplished the night before in Kyoshi's only tavern, to a bartender he wished was a stranger but who he saw nearly every day on the island, who he could see now having a smoke behind the bar, out by the empty barrels of imported fire whiskey. He looked content. Relaxed. No bleak predictions hanging over his head.

“This the ferry to Chin City?”

Sokka jumped, startled out of his reverie by the soft _thump_ of someone sitting down next to him. A middle-aged man in sweat-stained clothes and carrying an equally grimy pack. A cigarette dangled from his lips in a way that reminded Sokka unpleasantly of Jet, but at this point it was difficult to care too much about who he talked to.

“Yeah. But it’s running late.”

The man gave a gravelly laugh. “Just as well. One more hour of dry land under my feet.”

“You get seasick?” Sokka said casually, not quite hiding the smirk in his voice.

He snorted. “I don’t suppose you’d know, _Water Tribe_.”

Sokka supposed he deserved that, although his jaw still clenched as he felt the man’s gaze on his skin. It wasn’t something he’d counted on when he left the Southern Water Tribe, where Aang’s coloring was in the minority. But in the near decade since he still hadn’t quite gotten used to the way some people looked at him, especially in the Fire Nation, where almost everyone was as pale as Zuko.

Strung-out as he was, he had the vague impression that he’d lash out physically if this man tried to make an excuse to touch him in any way, like people sometimes did, as if they thought his skin might feel different. If Sokka was smart, he’d get up and sit somewhere else, maybe find some shade, and remove himself from this horrible man. But the numb hopelessness that had weighed on him since last night kept him rooted to the spot. 

What was the point, anyway? What did it matter what this man or anyone else said or did? What did anything matter?

“Tell me something, Kid,” the man said. “Are the tides going to be in our favor today?”

Sokka glanced at the water lapping at the docks. “When we’re pulling out, they will be.”

The man grunted. “Is that what’s making it late?”

He shrugged. “Could be.” It could be a lot of other things, too. The ferry system here was relatively new, instated to accommodate renewed interest in previous incarnations of the Avatar, and interest in the Kyoshi Warriors themselves. Needless to say, it was still unreliable.

The man took a long drag from his cigarette. “I’ll be happy to get away from here, when it finally comes. Won’t you?”

“Yeah.” Might as well tell the truth.

“I bet.” The man laughed and gave Sokka an exaggerated wink. “Young, handsome fellow like you can’t be trapped in a place like this.”

 _That’s it_. Sokka stood up and picked up his bags. “Look, Guy, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly _trapped_ here. I’m actually about to get on a ferry to _leave_ , so as much as I appreciate the advice, you don’t know anything about me or my life.”

He stood there for a second, panting, ready for the man to attack him or something, but instead he just took another drag from his cigarette and said, “Girl problems?”

Sokka snorted. “How would you know?”

After another puff and a wave of his hand. “I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ll find another one. Nothing like the arms of another girl to make you forget whoever’s got your chi in such a knot.”

Before Sokka could wrap his mind around how _this guy_ would know anything about _chi_ , the horn of the ferry sounded behind him and the man stood and headed for the docks, clapping him on the back as he left.

The ferry ride was short, and Sokka spent the whole time on deck near the bow, where the wind and spray meant it was too cold for anyone else to stay and make conversation with him. He disembarked as quickly as possible when the ship docked, weaving his way through the crowd and barely sparing a glance at the statue of Kyoshi that had replaced Chin the Conquerer. As far as likenesses of Kyoshi went, it was almost painfully average.

Instead of heading deeper into the city, he went directly to the public stables, pulling out the money to hire an ostrich-horse. He retained less-than-pleasant memories from when Chin City was still Chin Village, and had no intention of spending the night. The next closest city wasn’t far, but it was already late in the day and he’d prefer to have a bed by sundown.

As he rode, he tried not to think of Suki, and what she would be doing right now. Probably wrapping up afternoon training, about to head back to their house. Her house.

He adjusted the strap on his pack. Perhaps it had never really been _their_ house. Everything in there that belonged to him fit into a shoulder bag and a bedroll, and he wondered now if either of them had ever really considered his stay on Kyoshi Island to be long term.

The thought made his throat feel tight and he shook his head. If he ever wanted to get over this, he had to nip these unhelpful thoughts in the bud. Unbidden, the words of that jerk from the ferry rose in his head. _Nothing like the arms of another girl to make you forget_.

Grimacing, he tried to push that crude thought away as well. He imagined Katara would have a few choice words to say about such a sentiment, and he couldn’t say it really appealed to his own romantic sensibilities.

 _Although, where have those gotten you anyway?_ _Single again after almost a decade in a relationship._ Maybe a rebound fling wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, although he seriously doubted he’d happen upon any such opportunity in Gaoling.

* * *

After returning the ostrich-horse, Sokka began the walk through the main thoroughfare to the only inn-and-tavern he knew of in town. There were probably others by now, the way everything seemed to be growing exponentially these days, but he wasn’t interested in getting lost down side streets trying to find a closer one.

His route took him through the market, although the sun was close to setting and most of the merchants were in the process of taking down their tents. But towards the end, one of them was still completely constructed, where a group of men were haggling loudly over the last few items. The merchant, a woman in a dusty green dress with black hair down to her waist, leaned casually against the wall in front of them, appearing unaffected to the point of boredom by their screaming.

But there were three of them, all taller and at least twice her weight, so Sokka paused, one hand drifting towards the club on his belt, and watched the scene from a couple stalls down.

The woman was facing away from him, so it was hard to hear what she was saying over the voices of the men, but eventually she spoke up, drowning out the shouts of her customers.

“Look, I don’t give a spider-rat’s ass who buys the damn vase, so you have the next ten seconds to decide who’s going to offer me the best price before I smash it over your heads.”

There was something familiar about her voice Sokka couldn’t quite place, but the thought was interrupted when he saw the men’s stunned faces. He snorted a laugh, and allowed himself a brief moment to appreciate the woman’s figure as she pushed off the wall and crossed her arms. Upon closer examination, the dress was tailored and looked expensive, falling in flattering waves over her curves, and sleeveless to show off the woman’s well-muscled arms and shoulders. Small though she was, Sokka would think twice about messing with her.

Clearly, the men arguing with her weren’t of the same opinion, and one of them took a hulking step towards her. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.”

The man reached out as if to shove or grab her, and Sokka’s hand tightened around his club, but before the man could touch her the woman flicked her wrist and the earth shifted under his feet, sending him stumbling backwards and landing hard on his ass.

“Alright, Yan’s out,” the woman said. “So which one of you two dunderheads will it be?”

At that moment, she shifted slightly so Sokka caught a glimpse of her face, but even if he hadn’t he suddenly knew exactly why that voice was so familiar. The realization hit him like a bolt of lightning and he suddenly felt rooted to the ground. _No,_ he thought. _It couldn’t be…_

Right one cue, without turning towards him completely she called, “I know you can’t wait to catch up, Snoozles, but just give me five more minutes to take care of this business.”

He couldn’t help it, he broke into a genuine smile for the first time in days.

Two minutes later, all the men had departed (one very satisfied and the other two rather disgruntled) and Toph began the process of breaking down her tent. Sokka stepped forward to help her, folding all the poles into a leather bag and wrestling the heavy tarp into submission.

“What are you even doing here?” he said. “I thought you’d be in Yu Dao at your academy.”

“I’m on sabbatical,” she said. “Dear old Dad decided to permanently relocate to Republic City and Mom’s in Ba Sing Se with her new lover, so guess who gets to oversee the estate sale?”

“Lucky you,” he deadpanned, shoving the tarp into a bag and piling it onto a cart containing the few items that hadn’t been sold.

She snorted. “So tell me, Snoozles. How long did it take you to recognize me?”

“It was dark!” he said, hoping she couldn’t sense his embarrassment. In his defense, it had been years since they’d seen each other and she looked _completely_ different.

She shrugged. “Never bothered me.”

“Ha ha.” He started pushing her cart in the direction of the old Beifong Estate. “Your voice is different. And you’ve had a growth spurt! Don’t tell me you recognized my footsteps immediately.”

“Of course I did.” She smirked. “I’d know your stomping anywhere. Although you are a good half-stone heavier.” Her hand darted out to pinch his waist.

He smacked it away. “Hey, this is _all_ muscle, I’ll have you know.”

“Are you sure? It’s okay, I know Suki’s cooking is really good.”

“I’m sure,” he muttered, the mention of Suki sending his good mood plummeting into the earth.

If Toph noticed, she didn’t acknowledge it, except to change the subject to what she’d been up to since Aang and Katara’s wedding. Her original students at the Metalbending Academy were now instructors, and her father’s refinery was expanding in production and scale.

“They’ve just opened a new operation near Omashu,” she said. “And next up is Ba Sing Se.”

“That’s awesome,” Sokka said, suddenly aware of one name she hadn’t mentioned in all her talk of Earthen Fire. “I bet Satoru’s excited.”

He didn’t miss the way her mouth flattened into a line. She didn’t speak for a long time, until they stopped walking and he realized they’d reached the Beifong Estate. They stood there awkwardly for minute, Sokka half-waiting for her to tell him to buzz off.

Finally, she blew her bangs out of her face and said, “Look, I don’t know if you already have a place to sleep or whatever but you’re welcome to stay here. Although if you’re hungry I’m pretty sure I only have hippo-beef jerky and rice wine left in the kitchen.”

She crossed her arms and looked away, like she was bracing herself for rejection.

As if. He smirked. “Toph Beifong, are you asking me to come in for a drink?”

She glared and punched him in the arm. “Yes or no, Meathead? Before I change my mind.”

“ _Ow_.” He rubbed his bicep and pretended to deliberate for a few seconds.

She ground her teeth and he laughed.

“Come on, Beifong. You know I can never say no to jerky.”

She slugged him again as he pushed the cart through the gate.

“You know,” Sokka said two hours later as they lounged on the back porch, passing the bottle of wine back and forth. “You could’ve mentioned that you sold all the beds.”

Toph shrugged. “Didn’t occur to me.”

He looked back at the sprawling house behind them. “I can’t believe you managed to empty the whole place.”

She took another swig from the bottle. “Yeah, and it was fucking exhausting. Whatever’s left after today I’m just going to leave for the agent to deal with. I’m done.”

“So it’s back to Yu Dao after this?” he said.

“Eh.” She shrugged again. “Probably. Where are you headed?”

He sighed, staring hard at the cloudless night sky. “Honestly? I have no idea.”

Another hour later, they were both sprawled on their backs in the garden, the wine bottle almost empty.

“So.” He took another drink to brace himself. “Are we going to talk about Satoru?”

She let out a dramatic groan and grabbed the bottle back. “If you _must_ know, he left last year to scout locations for new refineries.”

“And you didn’t go with him?” he said. “Or keep in touch?”

“I had my school to worry about.” She crossed her arms. “And I didn’t want to do the long distance thing. I saw what it did to you and Suki.”

He flinched and reached for the bottle again, but she pulled it away.

“Alright.” Toph rolled onto her stomach, propped up on her elbows. “So how’d it all go down, and when?”

“She kicked me out.” He huffed a bitter laugh. “Last night.”

“Oof.” She rolled onto her back again, hands settling on her stomach.

“Yeah.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Nope.” He turned to reach for the bottle, but instead got a faceful of hair, splayed out on the grass off one of her shoulders. “Mmfth. Geez, Toph. When did this get so long?” Without thinking, he took a couple strands between his fingers, marveling at how soft it was, and trying not to dwell on the way it smelled– like earth just after it rained.

She laughed and pushed him away with a hand on his face. “It’s always been like that, Meathead. I just never wear it down.”

“So why is it down today?” _It looks so pretty_. _I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before_. He swallowed and pressed his lips together. Fuck, he must be really tipsy.

She wiggled her hips and tugged at the straps of her dress. “I get more traffic at the market when I dress like this. Higher bids, too.”

He chuckled. “Using your feminine charms to take advantage of poor customers?”

She laughed and punched him again. “Who’re you calling feminine? Take that back.”

 _Never_. But he knew better than to say that, so he just laughed with her and tried to remember who he was talking to. It was just Toph, who he still called his best friend after all these years. It was the easiest, least complicated relationship he had, and nothing could screw that up.

When their laughter died down and she was still silent, he turned to see what she was doing.

In the dim light of the quarter-moon, he watched her bend the space bracelet from her arm and hold it up, flexing her hands to make shape after shape. It moved almost too fast for him to see, but he thought he caught the outline of a badgermole, Aang’s glider, and a tiny dagger.

He sighed and flopped onto his back. “I miss Space Sword.”

The rock became a bracelet again and dropped onto her chest. “Didn’t Piandao help you make a new one?”

“It’s not the same.” The boomerang he’d replaced– more than once, in fact. The one he had now had been a gift from his father on his twentieth birthday, longer and heavier than the one he’d used as a teenager. But his new sword, although crafted by his own hand out of the finest metal available, never felt quite _right_ in his hands.

“We should go find it,” Toph said suddenly.

He laughed, then realized she was serious. “What?”

“I mean we should at least try and look for it,” she said. “With my earthbending and your… well, with my earthbending I’d say we had a decent chance if we just go back to the last place we saw it.”

He ignored the dig and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, if it hasn’t disintegrated into dust or washed to the bottom of the Mo Ce Sea.”

“We won’t know until we look,” she said.

Sokka narrowed his eyes and thought about it. He’d never considered the possibility of getting Space Sword back, but now that Toph had voiced it he wasn’t sure he could dismiss it.

“What about your academy?” he said.

She waved a hand. “Penga’s got it handled. Besides, I’ve been meaning to take a break.”

“Well…” He stared up at the sky again, trying to think of a reason not to go.

“Come on, Sokka,” she said. “It’ll be like old times– better than old times, without Sparky or his nutty sister chasing us, and without Aang and Katara being gross when they think I can’t feel them.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Sokka threw an arm over his eyes, as if that could block out the mental images of his sister and the Avatar’s sickening behavior after they decided they were _together_.

“Trust me, it’ll be fun.” Toph wheedled, although by the smile in her voice she knew she’d won. “Maybe we just need some direction in our lives, and this’ll be like an adventure, a _quest_. And we’ll be the heroes.”

“You mean _I’ll_ be the hero, and you’ll be the sidekick,” he said. “It’s _my_ sword, after all.”

“If I let you think that, will you go?”

How could he resist such a compelling argument? “Of course, Toph. Of course I’ll go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YES OKAY this is yet another “Tokka searches for Space Sword fic”– don’t pretend like y’all don’t want it ;) 
> 
> You should know this is also a totally transparent and self-indulgent framework for me to squeeze all my favorite Tokka tropes into one fic, including but not limited to–  
> \- an angsty Sukka breakup  
> \- Sokka noticing for the first time how much Toph has *grown*  
> \- references to Toph’s meteor bracelet  
> \- references to Suyin ;)  
> \- tag-teaming bar fights  
> \- serious(tm) campfire convos  
> \- unresolved sexual tension  
> \- denial of feelings in the face of unresolved sexual tension  
> \- swimming lessons that are *almost* sexy but not quite :P  
> \- Sokka “introducing” Toph to Yue  
> \- RESOLVED sexual tension 
> 
> So yeah, feel free to check those off as I update this XD 
> 
> (Updates will be shamefully irregular but I do have the next chapter written and the whole thing plotted out in pretty fine detail so I solemnly swear to finish this eventually.)


	2. The Girl in the Swamp

“Not that I’m one to question your map-reading skills or anything,” Toph said, hitching her pack higher on her shoulder. “But how do you plan on reaching Omashu by the end of today? We don’t exactly have a flying bison to carry us and all our stuff.”

“No, but there are other ways to travel,” Sokka said. The road out of Gaoling was just opening up, and he pulled out his boomerang and threw it in a smooth arc in front of them, catching it neatly in his right hand. “There’s a fishing village a little ways northwest of here, and I bet we can find a boat to take us straight to Omashu. If the wind’s good, we might even get there before dark.”

“Great,” Toph muttered. “A boat.”

“It’s the most efficient way,” he said, picturing the route he’d drawn out as they left. Despite his misgivings the night before, that morning he’d realized that this was possibly the best idea Toph could’ve had. It was satisfying, to put his mind to something he knew he was good at, to something accomplishable and practical. It felt good to have somewhere to go, something to do, while remaining free of any real responsibility. 

“Who cares about efficiency?” Toph griped. “It’s not like we’re on a time crunch or anything.”

“So you’re saying you _want_ to walk as much as possible in this heat?”

“I’m saying it’ll be better than taking a stupid boat,” she said. “You know I’ll just be puking the entire time.”

He did know that, and he felt a little bad, but he wasn’t about to change his mind. “It won’t be that long,” he said. “And after that the terrain gets easier and we’ll just be walking, I promise.”

“What’s wrong with the terrain?”

Sokka huffed. “Nothing right now, but a little further north there’s a swamp–”

“Ha!” Toph gave a shout of laughter. “Is that what you’re afraid of? Catgators and elbow leeches?”

He glared. “I’m not afraid of it, but that place is _weird_. You wouldn’t know, you’ve never been.”

“Yes I have.”

“What?” He stopped and turned around, wondering if she was joking.

But her face was serious. “I said I’ve been there.”

“…When?”

She shrugged. “Once or twice when I was a kid and ran away from home. I felt… drawn to it, I guess. The earth there feels different, and not just because of the water. I can feel how everything’s connected.”

“You sound like Aang,” Sokka muttered. It was weird to hear Toph talk like that, usually he could depend on her to be like him– only bothering with what was _real_.

She scoffed. “Whatever, ‘Fraidy-Pants. We’ll do it your way, if a little fog bothers you that much.”

“It’s not the fog.” He turned around and kept walking, hoping the ground beneath his feet and the heaviness of his pack would distract from unsettling memories. “It’s what’s in the fog.”

“You mean swampbenders?” Toph said, jogging to catch up.

“No, I mean–” Spirits, why was he talking about this? “The fog… messes with your head. You start to see things. Visions of people from the past, and not usually the parts you want to remember.”

“Who did you see?”

Of _course_ she’d ask that. He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, because it wasn’t real.”

“Sounds pretty real.”

He ground his teeth together. “I saw Yue, okay? And she reminded me I didn’t protect her, which– you know, nothing I didn’t know before but it just felt great to have that thrown back in my face.”

She had the grace to look a little chagrined, and Sokka prayed they could just drop it. But sometimes Toph was like a polar dog with a bone– refusing to let something go until she was satisfied, or whoever it was got too angry to talk to her anymore.

“Do you think if you went back you’d see Suki?”

Sokka resisted the urge to tear his hair out. “I don’t know, okay! And I don’t really want to find out.” He paused, taking a breath. “Besides, it’s not the same, what happened between us. I didn’t lose her like I lost Yue.”

Toph cocked her head, her expression perfectly neutral, although Sokka could see the wheels turning. “Sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

“Positive.” He hitched his pack higher on his shoulders and took advantage of his longer legs to put several feet between them.

They walked in silence for a long time, until Sokka began to keep an eye out for the turnoff to the fishing village. The dirt road had deteriorated into what could barely be called a trail, and each branch was far from clearly marked. It was starting to make him anxious– wouldn’t it be perfect if he managed to get them lost on the first day. Just more proof he wasn’t really good at anything.

Right on cue, Toph said, “If you still want to get a boat today, I hope you have a backup plan.”

“Why?” he said, peering closely at his map and wondering if they’d just passed the third crossroads after the turnoff to Chin City or the fourth.

“There’s a storm coming. Soon.”

“How can you tell?” he snapped. “Does sensing the earth allow you to predict the weather now?” He shoved the map in his tunic and started walking again.

“No, but I can sense your footsteps, and you’re starting to favor your left. The pressure change is making your leg hurt.”

 _That’s ridiculous._ He was about to retort with something sarcastic, until he glanced down and saw his hand already hovering over his left thigh, where his leg had broken on the airships. Right on cue, he felt a dull ache begin to radiate into his knee and hip, like it always did before bad weather.

Before he could think too hard about how Toph seemed to know his body better than he did, she walked past him and sniffed the air. “Also, I can feel all the moisture settling around us. Can’t you smell it?”

He could, and he noticed the way the atmosphere felt heavy and thick. The sun was still out and beating down upon them, but he had a feeling they’d end up camping outside the fishing village instead of getting on a boat.

They still picked up the pace, but instead of thinning out like he expected, the trees seemed to grow denser, crowding around the trail until he could barely see. At the same time, storm clouds began to block out the sun, and his leg started throbbing in earnest.

“Uhh, Sokka,” Toph said. “I think it’s going to–”

There was a crash of lightning and they both flinched, then covered their ears as thunder followed right on its heels.

At that moment, the heavens opened and they were both instantly drenched in the downpour.

“Can you maybe earthbend us a shelter?” Sokka shouted over the roaring in his ears.

“Where?” Toph screamed, gesturing around them. The forest had become so dense there was barely room to stand, let alone bend an earth tent. 

With no better ideas, he gave a frustrated growl and started stumbling forward, pushing through the branches and praying to all the spirits for a clearing, or a cave, or _something_ that would save them from the weather.

Then the rain around him seemed to thin, but when he looked up he realized with a sinking stomach it was because the canopy above him had grown thicker, almost as if all the trees were connected.

 _Fuck_. His next step left him stumbling through a puddle, cringing as water soaked through his boots and socks.

Then he turned around and his pulse jumped in his throat as he that realized Toph wasn’t behind him anymore, he was alone looking into an endless sea of fog.

After some more stumbling, Sokka found what he thought might be a trail and kept on walking. He called Toph’s name every few steps and strained his ears for sounds that might indicate where she went, although he knew in these conditions she had a much greater chance of finding him than the other way around. Any other day she might’ve found him already, but the thunder that still rumbled every other minute probably disturbed her seismic sense, and the pounding rain made it difficult for Sokka to hear much besides his own breathing.

He tried to focus on that sound, and the ground beneath his feet as he walked. If he stayed calm and sharp, he might be able to get through this without any weird visions.

Eventually the torrent of rain slowed to a drizzle and the thunder began to move farther away, but the fog only grew thicker until Sokka could barely see his hand in front of his face. Wary of Huu and vengeful vines, he didn’t draw his sword, but kept one hand on the hilt and an ear out for trouble. But the swamp seemed eerily still around him– nothing moved in the water or the trees. Not even insects emerged to buzz around his head.

There was a sound off to his right, and he whirled. “Toph?”

He walked towards the sound, splashing through puddles and clambering over roots. The fog in front of him thinned, and he strained his eyes for any sign of movement.

Then he heard it– a laugh, but not like Toph’s. At least not anymore. It sounded like the laugh of a young girl, and with a flash of irritation he turned away. _It’s just the swamp playing tricks on me._

But then he heard the laugh again, and a faint splash behind him. He hesitated, and it occurred to him that on the off chance it _was_ a real child, lost in the swamp alone, he couldn’t in good conscience leave her.

 _Alright, Swamp, you win_. He turned around and walked towards the noise. The fog was clearing as suddenly as it had descended, and he caught a glimpse of her in the distance. She was wearing a green earth kingdom dress, but the skin of her arms was darker, almost like his. She was facing away from him, but as he got closer he couldn’t help but think her hair might look like Katara’s, if Katara’s hair was black– wavy and thick.

Of course, before he could get a really good look she darted away. And like an idiot, he pursued her, blaming his natural curiosity and the fact that the swamp probably wouldn’t let him go until he saw what it wanted him to see. He was sure he’d never seen her before, but there was still something _so familiar_ about her, a thought that was just out of reach.

He ran for longer than he could keep track of, stumbling over logs and into puddles while she seemed to move unnaturally fast. Every time he thought he’d lost her she reappeared, her face always just out of view.

When she finally seemed to slow he had to stop, bending over his knees and gasping. His pack pressed down on his shoulders, hindering his ability to get a full breath and his vision wavered.

He squinted up at the branch where the girl had paused. She suddenly appeared not quite so young– certainly not old, but not a child anymore. He straightened and started to climb up the tree after her, and she waited until he was right below her to leap over to the next tree.

Hauling himself onto the branch she’d just left, he balanced against the trunk and leaned to get a better look.

She was almost facing him now, sitting on her tree branch, ankles crossed and toes pointed like a dancer. There was something in her hands– or rather, between them– something moving as she curled and flexed her fingers.

 _An earthbender_ , he realized. _Playing with a meteorite_.

Then she turned her face towards him and he saw her eyes. Though set in a sharper face and lacking the same white cloudiness, they were a fierce, bright green that he’d know anywhere.

He gasped, then his hand slid over a patch of wet moss on the tree trunk and he lost his balance, falling ass over tea kettle down the sloping branches and roots of the tree.

He landed with a splash in shallow water, and before he could blink the water out of his eyes he heard footsteps and a very familiar voice, “There you are, Snoozles! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

* * *

“So how long did it take you guys to find me?” Sokka said, squeezing water from his wolftail and looking across the fire at his… finders (not _rescuers_ , he didn’t need to be _rescued_ ).

“Near on all night,” drawled Due, biting into a giant fly. “We was almos’ convinced y’was dead.”

“No, we weren’t.” Toph stretched her legs towards the fire and rolled her eyes.

Unconsciously, Sokka caught himself staring, trying to get a better look at her in the light of the fire. The image of the girl he’d seen was still fresh, and every time he looked at Toph his mind flashed back to the glimpse he’d caught of her face.

“He could’a been dead,” Due said. “Didn’t I say he could’a been struck by lightnin’?”

“Yeah,” said Tho. “But I thought he would’a drowned first.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Sokka muttered, feeling over his pack and wondering if any of it would be dry by the morning.

“But here we found ya alive and breathin’!” Due said, as if Sokka hadn’t spoken at all.

“Jus’ in time, too,” said Tho. “Yer lady-friend was startin’ to get worried!”

“Really?” Sokka smirked and reached out to nudge Toph’s hip with his bare toes.

“No, I wasn’t.” She glared and batted him away. “And I’m not his ‘lady-friend.’”

“But yer a lady,” said Due. “An’ his friend.”

“She means _the other_ kind’a ‘lady-friend,’” Tho said, grinning at Sokka.

Sokka felt his face go very red and pressed his mouth closed, both to suppress the nervous laughter and to stop himself from saying anything that might get him buried ten feet underground.

Toph growled. “Watch it, or I’ll go find Huu and get _him_ to take us to Omashu.”

 _Wait, what?_ Sokka hadn’t heard about that part, but he didn’t get a chance to ask before Due and Tho broke into hasty apologies, only stopping when she said imperiously, “Fine, but you’ll only get what you want upon services rendered.”

The swampbenders relaxed and, seeming eager to avoid any more conversations that might damage their favor with her, Tho gave an exaggerated stretch and announced they’d go to bed. Due agreed, and they lumbered a little ways away from the fire to a couple hammocks strung up between branches.

Sokka watched them go before shifting closer to Toph. “What _services_? And what exactly did you promise them?”

“Oh, that.” She shrugged, as if she wheeled-and-dealed with swampbenders every week. “I got them to agree to waterbend us to Omashu in one of their boats.”

“In exchange for what?”

“Dried sea prunes.”

“ _What_?”

“I know you have some buried in your pack. When they heard I was looking for you it was all they would talk about. Apparently they got to try some at Sugar Queen’s wedding reception and have been hooked ever since.”

Sokka ground his teeth. “That’s all I have left of my stash from the last time I saw Dad. I’m not going to just _give it up_ in exchange for a boat ride.”

“Why not?” she said, dropping onto her back with her head pillowed on her arms. “You were dead set on a boat all day, and this way we still get to Omashu without walking through the rest of the swamp.”

“But– you–” He spluttered, trying to think of a reason her plan wouldn’t work, but coming up woefully empty.

“Do you want out of this swamp or not?”

“ _Yes_.”

“So wouldn’t you agree that’s worth a couple handfuls of disgusting Water Tribe food?”

“…Fine.” He slumped down next to her, but didn’t close his eyes. His boots were still drying by the fire and the longer he could stay awake to keep an eye on it the less unpleasant they would be in the morning.

She was quiet for so long he thought she’d fallen asleep, but then she said, “So… have any freaky visions?”

He opened his mouth to lie, then closed it again, remembering she’d be able to tell. “Yeah.”

“Who’d you see?”

He licked his lips, wondering how much he could tell her, how much he could describe without wading into all the messy, uncomfortable feelings that bubbled up when he remembered the vision. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know? Aren’t you supposed to see people from your past?”

“Not always.” He looked away into the fire. “The last time we were here, Aang saw you, and we hadn’t even met you.”

“Pfft.” Toph blew her bangs out of her face. “How does that even work?”

“Don’t ask me.” Sokka frowned. “We’re supposed to see people we’ve loved or lost, and Huu said some shit about ‘time being an illusion,’ which I guess means you could see someone you love or lose in the future.”

“So you saw someone you haven’t met yet, but will meet?”

“Maybe.” He flicked a bit of dirt into the flames. “Or maybe I was just tired and disoriented and not thinking straight.”

“Aw come on, that’s no fun.” Toph said. “Who do you _think_ they’ll be? Your next girlfriend? Your future wife?”

“Wha– _no_.” He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Nothing like that. That’s not the feeling I got from her at all.”

“So it _was_ a her.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, lying back down and pulling his hair loose. “It’s not always about that kind of love. Aang saw you, and Katara saw Mom, so it can also be… familial love.”

“So you think she’ll be part of your family? Like maybe one of Katara’s kids? Or one of yours?”

“No, and no.” He turned onto his side and looked back at the fire. “She was an earthbender,” he said quietly. “And she was playing with a meteorite.”

“…Oh.” Toph let out a little breath of air and fell silent for once, and Sokka left her to her thoughts. He needed a chance to sort out his own, anyway.

The more he considered it, the more certain he was that the girl he’d seen would be Toph’s daughter. If the green eyes and meteorite-bending didn’t seal it, that small half-smirk just playing at the edge of her lips made him sure.

 _So the only question_ , he thought as his eyes grew heavy and Toph bent a slab of earth over the dying fire, _Is why the swamp decided to show her to me._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told ya I could pull off a reference to Suyin ;) 
> 
> Also yes I know this chapter is shorter but this is like, my Thing. My first chapter is a length, the second chapter is weirdly short in comparison, then every chapter after that is longer than the first and they get progressively longer until I have to start splitting them up and this fic ends up 2 chapters longer than originally planned XD
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's read/left kudos! First person to comment gets a prize <3 (my undying love & appreciation)


	3. Two Lovers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead!!!! 
> 
> Sorry this took so long… between my grad school qualifying exam & moving back in with my parents for quarantine season things have been kinda busy. But I'm back and with renewed energy for this fic!

“Land! Glorious land!” As soon as they ran aground, Toph dove out of Due and Tho’s modified skiff and fell to her knees, pressing her face into the dirt.

Sokka chuckled as he reached into his bag for the last of the his sea prunes, handing them over to a grinning Tho. “Thanks a lot, guys. Enjoy.”

“Will do!” Due said. “Remember to come ‘round again soon!”

“Ha. Maybe.” Sokka gave a nervous laugh and waved as they pushed off and began making their way out of the inlet.

He glanced down at Toph. “Feeling better?”

“You have no idea.” She rolled onto her back and dug her fingers into the rocks, as if resolving never to be pried away from the earth again.

He couldn’t exactly blame her. Even though she’d skipped breakfast so as to make the trip on an empty stomach, that didn’t stop her from dry heaving for most of the ride, actually bringing up bile when the water got rough as they rounded Fong’s old military base.

“Come on.” He held out a hand to help her up, trying not to be surprised when she actually took it. “I bet you’ll have an appetite by the time we get into the city. We have to do a little shopping to replace some stuff that got ruined in the swamp, but then we can relax and have a really big dinner.”

She grinned hitched her bag onto her shoulder. “Y’know, Idea Guy, I think you’re finally starting to live up to your name.”

The road to Omashu was long and steep, and Sokka’s heart sank when they finally came in view of the city and found themselves in a queue that ran halfway down the mountain path. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Toph gave a dramatic sigh. “Can’t we just claim Friends-of-the-Avatar privileges and cut to the front?”

“I feel like trying to explain that to all the people currently ahead of us wouldn’t go over well.” Sokka leaned over the edge of the railing that now lined each side of the road and peered around the switchback. The main gate to the city was now flanked by eight guards in earthbender armor, who stopped each party to demand papers and identification. They opened and closed the walls each time.

He groaned at the inefficiency. “But there has to be another way.”

“Like that?” Toph pointed to the right and he noticed an airship descending from the clouds– a version of the original Fire Nation war zeppelins modified to serve as commercial transport.

He grimaced as it landed on a newly-constructed platform connected to a second entrance into the city. People were taking them everywhere these days, now that routes were open between most of the major cities in the world.

“No,” he said crossly. “I mean they don’t have to open and close the gate for each person in line. And merchants with produce could go in a separate queue. They’re just slowing it down for everyone else.” He didn’t have to explain his general disdain for airships to Toph.

A camelephant roared from the airship landing platform. Toph cocked her head. “Sounds like the circus is in town.”

“Where do they plan to put it?” he muttered. “They’ve gotta be running out of space in there with all these people streaming in.”

“These aren’t half the numbers Republic City’s getting,” Toph said. “At this rate it’s going to swallow Yu Dao and make one giant city.”

“Sounds lovely.” Not that he was against progress, but sometimes the constant crush of people in places that used to be relatively sleepy felt strange. Maybe after so much time on Kyoshi Island he’d gotten a little too used to the peace and quiet.

She shrugged. “It’s not so bad, although I’d keep one hand on your wallet if you plan on walking the streets at night.”

“Great, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Not that you’ll have to worry about that with me around.” She smirked.

“Good point.” He grinned. “What would I do without you?”

Was it just the sun, or did her cheeks look a little pinker?

She punched him in the arm.

“ _Ow_.” Probably just the light.

“All sorts of silly things.”

After a trip to the nearest quality market to re-stock, it was nearly dark by the time they both collapsed into a booth at a seedy-looking restaurant-and-bar.

Toph’s head thunked down onto the table. “Holy shit, I’m so tired,” she muttered. “I didn’t know it was possible to be this tired.”

“That’s because you’ve barely had anything to eat all day,” he said, picking up a menu. Besides some seriously sub-par fire flakes they’d picked up at the market, by his estimation she had nothing else in her system. “Want to hear what they have? Although it’s mostly your standard bar food–”

“Hippo-beef burger with all the fixings. Rare,” she said.

“Got it.” He flipped over the menu. “Anything to drink? Looks like they have Ember Island wine–”

“Who am I– Sugar Queen?” she scoffed. “But I’m good with water. If I drink anything at this point I’ll probably just pass out.”

“Suit yourself.” He shrugged and stood up. “They’ve got Blue Spirit on tap here so I’m getting a beer. If the waiter comes by I’ll have the same thing you’re having.”

He left the menu on the table and walked over to the bar, more than ready to blow off a little steam after yesterday’s swamp debacle. If they were going to be in the city, he was sure as hell going to enjoy some creature comforts that came along with it.

He was leaning over the bar trying to get someone’s attention when he heard a squeal off to the left. He turned and had just enough time to brace himself before a thin but surprisingly strong figure barreled into him, smacking the back of his neck with her braid.

“Sokka!” Ty Lee said. “I didn’t know you’d be here!”

“I’m just passing through.” He pried himself out of the hug and ignored the irritated glances of several men she’d apparently abandoned mid-conversation.

“Did you get to see the circus?” she asked, sipping from a violently pink cocktail no doubt paid for by one of her admirers.

 _The circus_. Sokka wanted to smack himself. That’s why she was on vacation from the Kyoshi Warriors. To visit her circus friends. “Err… no, I didn’t– I forgot it would be here.”

“Oh _._ ” She looked a little disappointed at first, but then her face turned sympathetic and she put a hand on his shoulder. “Did Suki do it?”

He froze. “You _knew_?”

She took her hand away and fluttered awkwardly. “Oh, you know we talked sometimes…”

 _Son of a bitch_. How many other warriors knew about the end of his relationship before he did? Not a moment too soon, the bartender noticed him and he got his beer, just in time to take a long drink.

“Well, uh… it’s good to see you.” He gestured vaguely back to the booth where he’d left Toph. “My table’s back there and I’m sure you have to get back to–”

“Oh, can I join you?” she interrupted. “We haven’t talked in so long!”

“Um, sure. Why not.” He led her back to the table and took his seat across from Toph, who glared at them.

“You didn’t bring my food,” she said.

“Nope!” Ty Lee smiled brightly and took a seat next to him.

“I’m sure it’ll come soon.” Sokka suddenly felt incredibly awkward, and unable to quite put a finger on why. It probably wasn’t the best idea to combine Ty Lee’s overbearing enthusiasm with Toph’s foul mood, but he crossed his fingers and hoped the problem would be solved when the food came.

Ten minutes later, he and Toph were making quick work of their dinner and listening to Ty Lee babble about everything from her friends in the circus to chi-blocking lessons with the Kyoshi Warriors to the last time she saw Mai and Zuko. By the time they finished, Sokka was on his third beer and Ty Lee on her second cocktail. Toph still hadn’t had anything to drink, and she was still glaring darkly at Ty Lee. It was starting to unnerve him.

To make matters worse, Ty Lee had been slowly edging closer to him on the bench, and while he’d been trying to maintain some distance between them, she’d essentially trapped him against the wall. Although, his slightly tipsy brain acknowledged that it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to be trapped against a wall by Ty Lee. Obscured most of the time by her Kyoshi Warrior uniform, she still cut an incredible figure, and it was hard not to notice. The low-cut dress she was wearing now wasn’t helping.

“Oh, Sokka,” she said, finally pausing her chatter to look closely at him. “Your aura is so much duller than the last time I saw you!”

“Yeah, well,” he finished the last of his beer, “breaking up will do that to you.”

Ty Lee pouted. “It’s so sad, what happened between you and Suki.”

Toph audibly gagged and slid off her bench. “That’s it, I’m getting a drink.”

“Bye, Toph!” Ty Lee gave her a smile and wave that were pointedly ignored. She turned back to Sokka. “If you ever want to talk about it, I can be a great listener.”

Sokka could think of few people with whom he’d want to discuss this less, but he tried to over it with an awkward laugh. “Thanks, Ty Lee, but I think I’m actually doing okay.”

“Really?” She clapped her hands. “That’s so good to hear! Is it because of Toph? Your auras are very close.”

“What?” Sokka frowned and leaned back. “No, we’re just traveling together for a bit.”

“She must be repairing it,” Ty Lee insisted. “Your aura.”

“I don’t know what you’re–”

There was a crash somewhere near the bar and Sokka craned his neck over the booth. People were starting to yell, and he’d bet his last gold piece that the person at the center of the developing scuffle was Toph.

“Sorry, Ty Lee.” He pushed the table back and slipped around her to see what was going on.

“What did you just say?” A tall, burly earthbender yelled.

“You heard me!” Yep, definitely Toph.

Sokka shoved his way to the center of the crowd just in time to see the man plant his feet and sink into a fighting stance, and then Toph shift the earth from under his feet before he could so much as move a pebble.

The crowd cheered and hooted around them, and Toph laughed, although Sokka spotted someone behind her raising a fist.

He sighed, briefly lamented to himself that he couldn’t take Toph _anywhere_ without getting into some sort of trouble, then picked up the closest chair and broke it against the nearest person’s head.

Chaos instantly descended, and what followed was a short but intense fight to see who could break the most furniture first. Sokka ducked and weaved and got in a few hits with his club, but before long most of the patrons, including Toph and himself, found themselves out on their asses in the street, their belongings tossed unceremoniously after them.

Toph spit into the gutter and dusted off her pants, a self-satisfied grin on her face. “Well, that was fun!”

He groaned and began inspecting his pack for anything broken. “I’m not sure I like your definition of ‘fun.’”

She snorted. “That’s a lie and you know it.”

Sokka chose not dignify that with a response and picked up his pack, tossing hers over a little harder than necessary. “Come on, let’s find somewhere to spend the night.”

Exhausted and dirty, he stopped at the first inn they came to. The greasy-looking receptionist winked as he handed them the keys, and Sokka didn’t realize why until they got to the room.

“Really, Snoozles?” Toph said, smirking. “You didn’t even buy me a drink at that bar.”

Sokka reddened and tried to keep from smacking his forehead. “He said this was their only room left! How was I supposed to know there would only be one bed?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m blind and even I could tell he thought we were coming in here to bang.”

“Ugh.” He tossed his pack in a corner and began untying his bedroll. “Whatever, it’s too late now. You can have it, I’ll take the floor.”

She stomped her foot and the earth rippled, sending him reeling backwards. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“What?”

She looked at him like he was missing something very obvious. “You don’t think one of us might be more comfortable sleeping on the ground?”

“Okay, fine.” He slumped down on the mattress.

Smirking, she bent herself a low palette near the foot of the bed

“I was just trying to be a gentleman,” he muttered.

She bristled. “Well don’t bother, Meathead. I’m not your lady.”

There were several things he wanted to say to that, like– _I never said you belonged to me_ , or _Of course you’re a lady, and I don’t understand why you always deny it like it’s a bad thing_ , but he ground his teeth against all of it. At this point, whatever he tried to say would probably just come out wrong. He should just go to sleep and hope all this weirdness would be sorted out when they got some rest.

* * *

Although she was quiet in the morning, Sokka felt Toph’s mood lift as soon as they stepped outside Omashu. He couldn’t help but feel the same. While it had seemed like a good idea when they started, and became necessary after the disaster in the Foggy Swamp, he was more than happy to put the city behind them and camp the rest of the way to the Wulong Forest.

Leaving the city was much faster than entering it, and before long they reached the main road. Sokka adjusted his pack on his shoulder and made to turn north.

“Wait.” Toph stopped behind him.

“What is it?”

“We should go visit the Tomb of Oma and Shu.”

“The what?”

She huffed. “Don’t you know the story of the first two earthbenders?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think they were real, or that they had a tomb.” What was she talking about?

“Well they do, it’s at the center of a labyrinth of tunnels under a mountain outside Omashu.”

 _Labyrinth?_ “You mean the Cave of Two Lovers?”

She made a face. “Don’t call it that.”

Sokka groaned. “Why would you want to go there?”

“We’re in the area, why shouldn’t we?”

He looked at his map, then at the mountains around them. “Well, it’s not really in our way…”

“It’s supposed to be right outside Omashu, it can’t be that far.”

“It’s just–” He spotted the peak marked on the map, and grimaced at the memories of singing nomads and wolfbats. “More _west_ than _northwest_.”

“Really, Snoozles?”

He sighed and snapped the map shut. He knew when he’d lost. “Fine, although I still don’t understand why you want to go.”

She glared. “You don’t understand why I, an earthbender who learned from badgermoles, would want to visit the tomb of the very first earthbenders, who also learned from badgermoles?”

 _Shit_. _Shit, shit, shit._

Toph turned on her heel and began walking up the trail heading west, and Sokka jogged to catch up with her.

“Wait, Toph, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t realize it would be important to you.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not.”

“Come on, don’t be like that.”

“Like what?”

He caught her shoulder so she stopped and turned to face him. “Toph, I don’t want to fight.”

“Who says we’re fighting?”

He gave her a look, then remembered she couldn’t see it and sighed. “Okay, I don’t know what the problem is– if something that happened in the city or if we’re just still getting used to traveling together, but if something’s wrong, you know you can tell me, right?”

She shifted away so his hand dropped off her shoulder and his heart sank. But then she took a breath and her expression softened. “Alright. I’m sorry.”

He blinked. “You are?”

“I don’t want to fight, either.” She looked uncomfortable. “It’s just… Ty Lee reminded me of some shit, okay?”

 _Ty Lee?_ “What kind of shit?”

She licked her lips, shifting her weight back and forth.

Sokka held his breath, waiting. It made him nervous, to see her unsure like this.

“Like, you disappearing on us after Aang and Katara got married.” She crossed her arms, staring hard over his right shoulder. “I mean, you basically sequestered yourself on Kyoshi Island for _years_ and I get you were trying to make it work with Suki or whatever but y’know… the occasional visit might’ve been nice.”

He tried not to flinch at the poorly-masked pain in her words. “Toph…”

“And I don’t hold it against you or anything, it’s just that Ty Lee got to see you all the time back then and I couldn’t so… yeah.” She earthbent a rock out of the ground and kicked it into the bushes.

He stepped forward. “Toph, I’m sorry.”

“I said I don’t hold it against you.”

“Well, let me apologize anyway.” He squared his shoulders. “And I’m going to make it up to you with this trip. Starting with the Cave of Two Lovers.”

She cracked a smile and shoved his shoulder as he walked past. “There are earth sages who would pound you into next week for calling it that.”

“I guess I’m lucky you’re so forgiving.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” She earthbent a hill under his foot so he stumbled.

He laughed. _She’s back_. “I’m still lucky.”

After a much longer trek than Sokka remembered, they found themselves standing at the entrance to the tunnels. It looked pretty much the same as it had ten years ago, when he’d ridden out of the mountain in triumph on the back of a badgermole.

He hesitated a few feet away, peering suspiciously into the darkness. “Hey, uh… how certain are you that we’ll be able to find the center of this place, anyway?”

Toph rolled her eyes and grabbed his elbow, dragging him forward. “It’s a network of tunnels made of earth, Meathead. I’m positive.”

He couldn’t argue with that logic, but his heart still pounded as they walked further away from the light.

Then they were in pitch darkness and he was completely dependent on her. Fireworks burst in his vision as his eyes adjusted and he instinctively opened them wider, even though there was absolutely nothing to see. He wondered if this was how she felt on wooden floors, disoriented and jumpy at the slightest sound or touch– _blind_.

There was no sound except for their footsteps and breathing. Every once in a while Toph would step especially hard, feeling out the paths around them. She kept a firm grip on his elbow and he bowed his head, trying to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. He squinted, imagining he could see the outline of his boots against the earth floor, like there was a dim, green light coming from above them.

Or maybe he wasn’t imagining it… he looked up and gasped. “Toph!” He tore his arm away. “I can see!”

She whipped her head around. “You can?”

“Yeah!” He pointed to the vaulted ceiling of the tunnel. “There’s glowing crystals on the ceiling.” He remembered meeting Aang and Katara at the end last time, their burnt-out torch in Katara’shand. “That must be how the two lovers did it.”

“What?”

“Instead of trying to get around with torches they must’ve put them out and followed the crystals to the center.”

She crossed her arms. “Pffft. If they were _really_ taught by badgermoles they wouldn’t need the crystals.”

Sokka smirked. “Now who’s being irreverent?”

She punched him in the shoulder. “If you think you know where we’re going now, how ‘bout I race you?” She didn’t wait for an answer before dashing off, moving the earth under his feet and tripping him just for good measure.

He chuckled and followed her, although with their heavy packs they weren’t running so much as stumbling through the tunnel, choking down laughter and shoving at each other when they got close.

As soon as he saw the tunnel open up, Sokka threw himself forward into an awkward tuck-and-roll just in time to see Toph sail over him, using the earth to launch herself into the air.

He scrambled to the center of the cavern, at the base of a dais supporting two coffins, and slapped the ground with his hand just as Toph landed.

“I win!” they shouted.

There was a brief stare-off.

“Jan-Ken-Pon?” Sokka held up a fist.

“Fine.” Toph did the same. “1, 2, 3–”

“Fire!”

“Earth!”

“Dammit!”

She smirked and flicked his temple. “You always choose fire.”

“I do not.”

She shook her head and slumped down next to him, shrugging off her pack and taking a deep breath. Both her hands and feet were flat on the floor, like she was taking it all in.

Sokka did the same, although it was difficult to see in the dim light of the crystals. He looked up at the carving of Oma and Shu kissing. “I bet Aang and Katara found this place last time we were here.”

“You think so?”

“They must’ve, if they followed the crystals out.” He pointed to the carving and snickered. “I bet that’s what inspired their first kiss.”

She snorted. “This is where they had their first kiss?”

“Yeah, in the labyrinth. Aang told us at his bachelor party. He said they were _trusting in love_.”

“Romantic.”

“I mean, it is now that they’re married and actually in love.” He shrugged and picked at a loose thread in his tunic. “If they weren’t, it would just be more evidence that love is untrustworthy.”

Toph raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

“I mean, look at where it got these two.” Sokka gestured to the coffins behind them. “Look at where it got Zuko’s mom, or your parents. Or _my_ parents.”

“Look where it got you.”

The thread between his fingers snapped. “Yeah,” he admitted. “Look where it got me.”

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” she said.

He hunched forward over his knees. “I don’t see why it matters.”

“Well, you spent years living on an island with her away from all your friends and family, so the relationship had to mean something to you. And since I’m basically the only friend you’ve seen since then and you haven’t talked to me about it, I assume you haven’t talked to anyone, which can’t be healthy.” She paused, bowing her head so her face was in shadow. “And that matters to me.”

Sokka’s hands stilled. It wasn’t like Toph to talk with such sincerity, and he braced himself her to break the moment with a punch in the arm, but none came.

“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” he said.

“The beginning usually works.”

He threw out his hands. “I don’t even know where that is! I moved to Kyoshi to be with her, and when things were good, they were good, but when they weren’t… they _really_ weren’t.”

She didn’t say anything, although he waited. She didn’t move at all, just stared sightlessly at the carving of Oma and Shu in front of them, although he knew she was listening.

“That last year it feels like all we did was fight.” It was almost physically painful to speak, but at the same time a subtle weight seemed to lift from his chest as he continued. “Mostly about stupid shit like housekeeping and bad habits, but also about real stuff, like the direction of our relationship, and what we ultimately wanted out of life.”

Maybe Toph was right. It would be good to get it all out into the open.

“I don’t think we went two weeks without one of us sleeping somewhere else.” He huffed a bitter laugh. “Looking back on it, I can’t believe that went on for so long. We were miserable.”

Toph nodded thoughtfully, her face serious. “So what finally did it, in the end?”

“She said…” He swallowed. “She said I resented her for trapping me on the island, and that’s why we hadn’t gotten engaged.” His fists tightened. “But it’s not true. And besides, how can she tell _me_ what _I_ feel?”

Toph nodded again. “So what’s the real reason?”

He glared at the floor, feeling frustration curl in his stomach all over again. “I just wasn’t ready. I could never think of anything else to say.”

She shrugged. “I’d say that’s a fair reason.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” She shifted, leaning forward on her elbows. “I mean, you don’t want to make a decision like that unless you’re sure, right?”

“Right.” He let out a breath, surprised and somewhat relieved to know he wasn’t crazy.

Then Toph continued, “Although… maybe you did resent her, just a little bit.”

He groaned. “Not you, too.”

“Think about it,” she said. “You sacrificed a lot to live with her– living near your friends, your family, traveling. What did she give up? Was she willing to make the same sacrifices? So maybe you resented her for that.”

Sokka fell silent for a minute as her words sank in. They’d never discussed the alternative, he realized. He offered to move to Kyoshi with her, and she’d accepted. He never asked if she’d come with him to the South Pole, or Republic City, or any of the places he’d considered settling down. He kind of assumed she wouldn’t, and maybe that was the problem all along.

“I thought love would be enough,” he murmured. “I thought it was enough that I loved her, and I wanted to be with her, but it wasn’t. I’m not even sure–” his breath caught. “That night… she asked me if we were still together because we were in love, or because it was familiar.” He had to blink away the moisture in his eyes. “I couldn’t answer her… and the look on her face… maybe I didn’t need to.”

Toph didn’t speak for a long time, long enough that he wondered if he’d revealed too much. The thought made him uncomfortable– that she might feel awkward around him, and he started thinking of ways to break the tension.

But then she said, “That blows.”

He swallowed, the simple acknowledgment loosening the knot in his chest. “At first I wondered whether I was ever really in love with her, but I _was_ , I’m sure of it. I’m sure there were times…” He shook his head. “But somehow I don’t think I am anymore. And I don’t know what happened.”

Toph looked thoughtful. “You were a lot younger when you met,” she said. “Everyone grows up, you guys just grew in different directions.”

“Maybe.” He rested his chin on his knees. “But it still makes me feel like shit. That we invested all that time and this is how it had to end. And I never found it in me to propose.”

She shook her head. “No, don’t beat yourself up over that,” she said. “If you don’t want to get married, no one should pressure you.”

“I guess so…”

“Besides,” she looked away into a corner, “marriage is lame.”

He frowned. “Why do you say that?”

Her hands curled into fists. “It’s just another way to make you belong to someone.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Even though he could never quite imagine it with Suki, the thought appealed to him in the abstract– having someone by his side for the rest of his life, someone he could always rely on, and who’d always rely on him.

“ _No_.” She turned back to him, her face hard. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to be my own person. I’m not giving that up to tie myself to someone else.”

“Even if you love them?”

She pressed her fingers to her forehead, eyes closed tight as if she had a headache. “Do you want to know the real reason I ended it with Satoru?”

Sokka swallowed, not sure what to say. Truthfully, he was curious– they’d seemed perfectly happy at Aang and Katara’s wedding, but he was hesitant to pry.

“I mean, what I said before was true– he left for business and I didn’t want to do long distance. But the reason I just let it go was because my dad was all over me to get married. And he was willing to let me choose Satoru, but he still–” she grimaced, “offered him my _dowry_.” She shuddered, as if the word left a bad taste in her mouth.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Ugh, you don’t get it!” Toph was up on her knees now, as if she was about to stand up and start pacing the room out of sheer frustration. “If I get married, even if I do get to choose who it is, they basically get paid in the process. It’s disgusting!”

Sokka opened his mouth, then closed it again. He’d never considered how marriage might be different for her. Sure, it was something that terrified him and he’d spent countless hours agonizing over it, but it had always been a _choice_. He felt his cheeks heat up with shame.

Toph sat back on her heels. “Anyway, Satoru would’ve taken it. And not with any bad intentions– he was great. I… well, I really liked him.”

“But not enough to marry him?”

“It doesn’t matter.” She tucked her knees into her chest. “For me, marriage won’t ever be about love, not really. It’ll be a transaction– one I don’t ever want to be a part of.”

While she said it with her usual bravado and it was right in line with her I-don’t-need-anyone attitude, her face was serious, and Sokka couldn’t help but feel sad at her words. Either way, the choice was still taken away from her.

He picked at the loose thread again, trying to think of something he could say. “…That blows.”

She huffed a laugh and punched his shoulder. “Thanks for listening, Meathead.”

He grinned. “Happy to return the favor.”

After a moment of silence, she smiled back and jumped to her feet, brushing the dirt from her pants and picking up her pack. “Enough talking about depressing shit. Let’s get a move on.”

He stood and did the same, hefting his pack over his shoulder with renewed energy. “I was going to warn you,” he said, walking to the stairs leading out of the tomb, “that the other end of these tunnels is blocked off by a cave-in, but I guess with you here we don’t need to worry about that.”

She tossed her head. “Between the two of us, Snoozles, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about anything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who's been reading/commenting/kudos-ing/following this fic!! This story holds a special place in my heart and your support means the world <333


	4. Petrichor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: minor period-typical racism and sexism

“Well, shit.” Sokka paced a few times up and down the riverbank, staring out over the rushing water. The river dividing the Earth Kingdom and the United Republic of Nations was a lot wider and deeper than he remembered.

“Soo…” Toph rocked back on her heels. “I’m guessing you didn’t think about how we were going to cross rivers without Appa.”

“I did so,” he snapped. “I just thought we’d be taking the main road at this point and there would be a bridge. But since we took that little detour through the Cave of Two Lovers the main road is over a day’s walk upriver.”

She crossed her arms. “Don’t make this _my_ fault.”

“I’m not, I’m not.” Sokka held up his hands. “Just let me think.” He put down his pack and went back to staring at the water. If he was alone, he might’ve tried to swim across, but that even that would’ve been risky and attempting it with Toph was out of the question.

They didn’t have the supplies to build a proper boat, and a raft would be impossible to control with the current. That left earthbending. While he had no doubt Toph _could_ simply launch them to the other side, he wasn’t sure about the prospect of a hard landing on the opposite shore.

“So, do you think you could just… earthbend us a bridge across?”

She came up next to him and stomped her foot, getting a feel for the land. “If there was an earthbender on the other side, maybe. But I’m not sure whatever I can bend from here would be stable in the middle.”

Dropping her bag, she took a stance and shoved her arms forward. A slab of earth extended out from the bank and made it almost halfway across before breaking against a wave.

Sokka winced. “Okay, maybe that won’t work.”

“No kidding.” Toph looked distastefully at the water. “Would it really be so bad to walk up to the main road?”

He crossed his arms. “No, I’m sure we can think of a way to cross here.”

She laughed. “Oh I see, it’s a pride thing now.”

“Hey, I’m supposed to be the idea guy, right? I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

“Uphold to who? I’m the only one here, and I’m pretty sure that ship has sailed.”

Sokka chose not to dignify that with a response, and cast about up and down the river for ideas. To his left, about a hundred paces downriver, the water was split by an island, rushing down rapids on both sides.

“Okay, I have an idea.” He picked up his pack started walking towards it, stopping when it was directly across from him. “Can you feel that?” He pointed.

Toph stomped her foot again. “Sort of.”

“Think you can earthbend a bridge that far?”

“No problem.” She lunged and thrust out her hands, extending a slab of earth between the bank and the island. It was lower than he imagined and closer to the water than he would’ve liked, but it looked stable enough.

“Nice.” He shouldered his pack and started walking across, Toph close behind him.

It was more nerve-wracking than he expected, the wind threatening to blow him off the narrow strip of earth, water licking at his heels.

At one point, an unusually high wave caught their feet and Toph yelped, reaching out to clutch his shoulder.

His heart rate spiked and he brought up a hand to hold her wrist. If this was making _him_ anxious, he couldn’t imagine what it must feel like to her.

She pulled her arm free as soon as they reached the tiny island and the earth bridge crumbled behind them. She took a deep breath, and he could see her trying to compose herself. He knew better than to ask if she was okay.

“Halfway there,” he said.

“Wonderful.”

They walked to the other side of the island and Sokka chewed his lip. “It’s a little farther this time–”

“Let’s do this.” Mouth set, Toph bent another strip of earth to the far bank. The water was higher on this side, in some places already splashing over the bridge.

Sokka hesitated. “Maybe you should go in front.”

“What? So if any bit of this breaks I’ll get dunked first?”

“ _No_ , so I can see you in case something happens.”

“Oh.” She cocked her head, a strange expression on her face, like she was trying to decide whether to be grateful or offended.

Sokka really hoped she went with the former.

“Well, alright then.” She stepped up in front of the makeshift bridge, but hesitated again.

“Go on,” he said, reaching out to touch her arm. “I’m right behind you.”

She slapped his hand. “I know that!” But her shoulders relaxed and she stepped forward.

This leg was worse than the first one. The bridge was only just higher than the water, and he could feel the pounding of the waves underneath. Towards the middle, the earth shifted under his feet and he saw Toph clench her fists. He knew she was only keeping it together through sheer force of will.

They were almost all the way across when a wave crashed into her ankles and she stumbled, surprised. The bridge shuddered as her concentration broke and before he could think about it, Sokka grabbed her shoulders and dove for the opposite bank as it crumbled into the water behind them.

They barely made it. Toph landed hard on her stomach and Sokka heard the _whoosh_ of the air knocked out of her. He tried to catch himself with his elbows so as not to crush her with his own weight, and the impact rattled up his arms and jarred his shoulders.

He didn’t roll away immediately, listening to her gasp and struggle to get her breath back. He didn’t need earthbending to know her heart was pounding almost out of her chest, in time with his own.

“Get off me,” she said as soon as she could speak, pushing him off and rolling over so she could sit.

He did the same, taking a deep breath and rolling his shoulders. “Well, that was close.”

She reached out and punched his arm, but not in her usual affectionate, teasing way.

“ _Ow_.” That was going to hurt tomorrow.

“That was a terrible plan, Meathead.”

“Hey, it worked,” he tried to joke, although she clearly didn’t find it funny.

She stood up and dusted off her pants, hands still shaking. “Let’s just keep going.”

He did the same, after checking his pack to make sure nothing had come loose. “Good idea.”

“Best one either of us has had all day,” she quipped, striding up ahead of him with all her usual confidence, although he could hear her muttering darkly about the water.

The next few days of walking were uneventful. Aside from a brief stop in Senlin Village for food and supplies, they only paused to sleep in their journey north. The road took them along the outskirts of Hei Bai’s forest, and Sokka noted the green undergrowth sprouting up among the burnt stumps where the Fire Nation had destroyed it. He hoped Aang got to see it sometime.

Eventually, the road found the coast and hugged the water until it turned into another river, although not as wide or deep as the previous one. After a day or so of walking upriver, Sokka stopped at the edge of a lagoon at the base of a waterfall and paused, searching his memory for the reason this place felt so familiar.

“Hey, I know where we are!”

Toph snorted. “I should hope so, you’ve got the map.”

“No, I mean I recognize this place.” He put down his pack and rolled his shoulders, then knelt by the edge of the pool to splash water on his face. The weather had gone from hot to sweltering, and the coolness on his face felt like heaven. 

“From when?” Toph dropped her pack as well and sat on the ground behind him.

“This is where Katara tried to teach Aang waterbending for the first time.”

“I’ll bet that was funny.” She stretched out on her back in the shade, pulling at where her clothes had stuck to her skin.

He chuckled. “Yeah, it kinda was.”

“Was it like his first day of earthbending?”

“Not at all.” He laughed again. “It was before Katara had any formal training, so it was more like her attempting to teach Aang stuff but mostly slapping herself in the face with water.”

She snickered. “I can’t imagine Sugar Queen being bad at waterbending.”

“Yeah, those were the days.” Sokka gave an exaggerated sigh. “Back when I still had a chance against her in a fight.”

“I don’t think that was ever true.”

“Was so.” He climbed to his feet and stripped off his shirt, tossing it aside in a damp heap. His boots soon followed and he was starting on the laces of his pants when Toph cleared her throat.

“Uh, what’s with the striptease, Snoozles?”

“First off, what difference does it make to you?” He untied the knot and let them fall around his ankles, stepping out of them to wade into the water. “Second, the water is cold and it’s so hot I think my sweat is sweating.” He resisted the urge to groan as the water hit his chest. “What do you say we camp out here? At least until the weather cools off a little. Also I need to do some laundry. That was my last clean shirt.”

She shrugged. “Sounds good to me. You needed a bath, anyway. I could smell you from over here.”

Sokka sniffed tentatively under his arm and grimaced, then walked in further until he was up to his neck. “Hey, what about you?” he called. “Does ‘a healthy coating of earth’ include three days’ worth of sweat after walking for miles?”

Another shrug. “Feels alright to me.”

He pulled out his wolftail and dunked his head underwater, coming up with a gasp and whipping hair out of his face. “Come on, Toph, I know you don’t like water but you should really try this. It feels amazing.”

She sat up and crossed her arms. “I’m not afraid of water.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“I’m _not_.”

He held up his hands. “Look, I understand. It’s a perfectly rational thing for you to fear.”

“But I _don’t_ fear it.” She stood up.

“If you say so.” He leaned back and lifted his legs, floating on the surface and relishing the feeling of weightlessness. He didn’t notice Toph undressing and walking towards the water until she spoke again, standing at the edge with her ankles submerged wearing nothing but her breastband and a pair of shorts.

“See?”

He looked over, and before he could stop himself felt his eyes move up and down her body at all the curves and muscles he’d never noticed before. Deep in his stomach, he felt a jolt not unlike the one he’d felt the first time he saw her in Gaoling. Fuck, Toph had _grown_.

He swallowed and mentally slapped himself for ogling, then thanked all the Spirits that she couldn’t feel his heartbeat while he was floating.

“See, not afraid of water,” she said, walking in up to her thighs. “Just so long as I can still touch earth.” She spoke facing slightly to his left, and he realized she didn’t have a good sense of where he was.

“Oh yeah?”

She corrected herself as soon as he spoke. “Yep.”

“So what if I did…” Quietly, he paddled back until he was right behind her, then stood and wrapped his arms around her, leaning back so her feet were in the air. “This!”

“Hey, what the hell! Sokka!” She flailed wildly, kicking and struggling against his grip until he lost his balance and they both fell into the water.

She stood up immediately, hair loose and plastered to her back, bangs dripping water onto her face.

It was shallow enough to sit with his head above water so he didn’t bother standing, just sat back and laughed at the absolute _fury_ on her face. He’d definitely pay for that later, but it was so rare for him to get the drop on her he couldn’t bring himself to regret it.

He could see her lips twitching, struggling to keep a straight face, but she kicked water in his face to shut him up and stalked back towards the shore.

Snorting water out of his nose, his laughter faded as he watched her bend over her pack for a rag to dry her face. He looked away when he realized he was _staring_ at her again, and his hands curled around his shins.

 _Not good_ , said a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Katara.

When he glanced up again, he saw her staring back at him, and realized that from his place sitting in the shallow water, she could definitely feel his heartbeat.

He shook his head, flinging droplets of water from his hair. Head down, he stood and walked over to his pack and began digging through it for all his dirty clothes and a bar of soap.

“I guess I’ll just… I’m going to go wash my stuff,” he muttered.

Toph blinked and seemed to snap out of whatever trance she’d been in. “Yeah, good idea.”

She waited for him to gather his things and choose a secluded place near the waterfall before collecting all her clothes and retreating to a cove on the opposite side of the lagoon.

Honestly, Sokka was grateful for the chance to be alone for a bit. Spending this much time together with no one else around was doing weird things to him. He focused hard on scrubbing the dirt and sweat stains out of his shirt and tried to dispel images of Toph from his mind. Images of Toph in just her breastband and shorts… dripping wet…

 _Shit_.

He finished with the shirt and ducked his head under the waterfall.

 _Get ahold of yourself, Meathead_ , he scolded himself. _Post-breakup loneliness is no reason to think of your best friend like that!_

He tossed the shirt aside and moved on to a pair of pants. The problem, he decided, was this swimming thing. It was just weird, now that they were older, to be around each other barely clothed like that. Soon they’d both be dressed and things would start to feel normal again.

Upon finishing and laying out his clothes on boulders in the sun, Sokka realized the flaw in this plan. With efficiency in mind, he’d washed every article of clothing he had, and now wouldn’t have anything dry to wear over his underclothes for hours. He glanced over and guessed by the way Toph was no more dressed than before that she had done the same.

He quickly looked away before his mind could wander again. Maybe he just needed something to do. For lack of any other stimulation, his brain was seizing upon random things.

She finished laying out her clothes to dry, and he watched her linger for a minute in the shallows, swirling the water around with her feet and wiping sweat from her neck. He wondered if she’d give in to the oppressive heat and stay in the water, but eventually she returned to the shore near her pack and sprawled out on her back in the shade.

Sokka licked his lips and thought about the way her usual attitude of invincibility had been shaken when they crossed the last river, and the fear on her face when she got close to the water. He hated seeing her so afraid, and about how helpless she’d be if she were swept into the current.

“Hey,” he waded out of the water and walked up to her. “Let me teach you how to swim.”

She cracked a cloudy eye. “Excuse me?”

“I said–”

“I heard you.”

He waited. If he wanted to win her over, he had to be patient.

“Why would you need to teach me that? I don’t exactly plan on diving into any bodies of water.”

“I know you don’t _plan_ to, but it could still happen.”

“I’m the greatest earthbender in the world.” She closed her eyes again. “I wouldn’t let it.”

He crossed his arms. “Remember the Serpent’s Pass? Or crossing that river a few days ago?”

Toph stiffened at the mention of the Serpent’s Pass, not-so-subtly shifting away from him.

He felt a little bad for bringing it up, given that it was probably one of the worst experiences she’d had during the war, but he pressed on. “It would at least be good to have a plan,” he said. “Just in case something happens.” He chewed his lower lip. “And it would make me feel better, too. Knowing you’d be safe.”

She pressed a palm to the ground and he held his breath, hoping she didn’t interpret his discomfort as lying.

“Fine,” she said at length, standing up and walking towards the water. “But no more funny business from you, got it? Remember we’ve still got a few more weeks of traveling together, _on earth_.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

She followed him into the water and they waded in until it was up to her knees. They stood there for a second, staring at each other.

“Well?” She crossed her arms. “I’m waiting, Mr. Water Tribe.”

“…Right.” He rubbed the back of his neck, wondering where to begin. “I guess the best thing would be to start by teaching you how to float.”

“Okay.”

Sokka blinked. For some reason, he’d expected more resistance.

She shrugged. “Seems reasonable. Like a good first step to not drowning.”

“Okay.” He shook his head. “The basic principle is to just relax on your back. Humans naturally float on the surface, so the key is not to panic.”

“Hmph.” She hadn’t unfolded her arms, but she also wasn’t running away, so he took it as a sign to keep going.

He took a hesitant step forward. “I guess ordinarily I’d demonstrate, but in this case maybe we should just go for it.”

Toph narrowed her eyes. “You want me to just lie back on the water and expect to stay on top?”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

“That fills me with confidence.”

He pouted. “Hey, don’t you trust me?”

“About as far as I can throw you.”

“That’s pretty far.” He grinned and put a hand lightly in between her shoulder blades. “Just lean back whenever you’re ready. I’ve got you.”

For a moment, he was afraid she wouldn’t do it, but then he felt pressure on his fingertips and he watched her slowly lean back. She flinched and squeezed her eyes closed when her head touched the water, but he kept his hand on her back and made sure it never rose past her ears.

He glanced down at her legs. “You realize you’ll have to pick up your feet eventually.”

“Just give me a second!” she said between clenched teeth.

He nodded, even though she couldn’t see, and reached down to put his other hand gently on the back of her knees. Half of him wondered if she’d lash out for pushing too far, but to his mild surprise she picked up her feet and allowed him to lift her legs to the surface.

“Relax,” he said, watching her pulse jump in her throat. “And just breathe normally.”

She nodded and took a deep breath, making a conscious effort to unclench her muscles, before stiffening again when her head tipped too far back and water splashed onto her face.

Sokka pressed his hand harder into her back. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ve got you.”

She let out a frustrated breath. “This is worse than flying.”

“Yeah?” His back was beginning to hurt from hunching over her, so he gently moved them into slightly deeper water, until it was up to his waist.

“There’s nothing under me,” she said. “And I feel completely weightless, it’s almost like falling.”

Sokka’s hand twitched against her back. The thought of Toph falling troubled him, to say the least.

“Well, I’m under you,” he said, then immediately flinched at his choice of words.

Toph snorted and flicked water in his face. “Very funny.”

He laughed nervously, glad once more she couldn’t feel his heartbeat.

But as she relaxed again they slipped into a more comfortable silence. “You know,” she said conversationally, as if they were lounging in her parents’ garden, “this is great and all but it’s not exactly _swimming_. What am I supposed to do from here?”

“Nothing.” Sokka swallowed, still trying to shake images of her falling over the Wulong Forest, sinking underwater at the Serpent’s Pass, being swept into the undertow of the river. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. “It’s so that you can stay alive long enough for someone to come get you.”

“Great, so I’m stuck relying on one of you dunderheads to rescue me?”

He frowned, but tried to keep his tone light. “Hey, it’s not always bad to rely on other people. And I’d know, I’m relying on you to protect me if we run into any more trouble on this _quest_.”

She smirked. “You’re damn right.”

He licked his lips, pushing away memories of the battle on the airships, the phantom pain in his leg and her hand slowly sliding out of his. “But– you know I’ll _always_ come and rescue you.”

To his surprise, she actually _blushed_ at that, which did not help the awkwardness he was feeling, but he tried to cover it up with a nervous half-laugh.

“So is this it for the lesson, Snoozles?” she said. “Since you’ll always be there to dive in right after me, without even taking off your boots?”

If it was possible, Sokka felt his face grow even hotter. “Fine,” he muttered. “I guess there’s the backstroke–”

“The what?”

“The one stroke– type of swimming– you can do on your back.” He grabbed one of her wrists and moved her arm in a windmill motion. “Just kick and move your arms like this.”

“Like this?” She pulled out of his grip and kicked, propelling herself further away from the shore.

“Yes–” He dove after her and caught her ankle, wading in deeper to catch up. The water was now up to his chest. “But the thing is, you can’t see where you’re going, so it’s better for you to just stay in one place.”

She pouted. “So that’s it? This is the best I can do in the event of an unexpected dip?”

“Well, it’ll keep you alive, and that’s what’s really important,” Sokka said. “If you sink enough to touch the bottom, you should obviously just earthbend yourself to the surface. But if it’s too deep, like at the Serpent’s Pass, try to get a good breath before going under– air in your lungs will help you float.”

She nodded. “Got it.”

“But honestly–” he realized he was still holding onto her ankle and (a little reluctantly) let go, “let’s just hope you never have to use that information.”

Toph snorted. “I’ll do my best.”

“Thanks.” He knew that a promise from Toph to stay out of trouble was worth next to nothing, but it still helped calm the sudden anxiety he felt at the thought of anything happening to her.

They fell silent again, no sounds around them but the waterfall behind him and water lapping at Toph’s ears. Sokka found his mind wandering again to the way the sunlight caught on her hair, and the thin strips of cloth separating his fingertips from the warm skin of her back.

He closed his eyes and tried to channel Aang to meditate his thoughts back under control, but his concentration was broken when Toph cleared her throat.

“Great lesson, Snoozles, but I think that’s enough for one– Holy shit!” Before he could stop her, she folded her body and made to stand up, eyes going wide when she realized they were in much deeper water.

“Toph!” Sokka made a grab for her arms, but between her wet limbs and panicked flailing he couldn’t get a good grip.

After a few hectic seconds, her hands found his shoulders and her arms wrapped like a vice around his neck, her legs curling around his waist.

Instinctively, his arms went around her back and he held her against his chest, feeling her heart racing next to his while they both caught their breaths.

“What the fuck, Sokka?” she gasped, head pressed to his shoulder.

“Sorry, I’m sorry! I meant to walk us back, I promise!”

“You’re a jerk.”

“I know.” As his own heartbeat slowed, he realized how closely they were pressed together, and without thinking he tilted his head to look at her face. His breath caught as he realized she’d done the same, and their noses were mere inches apart.

 _Her eyes…_ He didn’t think he’d ever seen them this close before. Although muted by a milky-white film, he realized that the irises were green, almost swallowed by large pupils that didn’t respond to the sunlight. His eyes flicked down to her lips and he wondered– as if he were outside his own body– if he was going to kiss her.

She kicked her heel against his thigh. “Bring me back, Meathead.”

 _No._ It was silly to even consider it. “Yes, sir.” He walked back to where she could stand. “Okay, you’re good.”

She dropped her legs and stepped away from him, pulling her sodden hair off her neck. If she was flustered at all by what had happened, she didn’t show it, and Sokka did his best to do the same.

“So,” she said, wringing the water out of her hair, “what’s for dinner?”

He shrugged, glancing up the river. “I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll go fishing.”

She nodded, then went to see if her clothes were dry. He did the same, then pulled a fishing rod and line from his pack and started up the bank. He wondered briefly if things would become awkward between them, then immediately dismissed the thought as ridiculous.

Maybe it was kind of a weird situation in the moment, but they were best friends. They could handle that sort of thing without letting it affect their relationship.

* * *

It wasn’t totally conscious, but as the days wore on Sokka began to notice another unintended consequence of the swimming lesson. After being that close to each other wearing almost no clothes, it felt far easier– almost natural– for the average distance between them to slowly decrease.

He wasn’t sure if Toph noticed, but if she did she made no move to object, and he couldn’t quite bring himself to stop. So what if he enjoyed walking a little closer together, or brushing dirt off her shoulders when he noticed it, or sitting close beside her in front of the campfire over dinner? Compared to the day at the lagoon, it was nothing.

At least, he was slowly convincing himself that was the case as they neared Republic City. They were just about a day’s walk away when they happened upon a seedy tavern near the shore, and Toph’s face split into a toothy grin.

“Hey, now I know where we are.”

“Where?”

“June’s bar.”

“Who’s bar?”

“That lady who helped us find Uncle and his gang of old people right before the comet.”

“Oh, yeah.” He vaguely remembered something like that, although honestly the days leading up to the comet were a bit of a blur.

“Come on, I could use a drink, couldn’t you?”

He really had no good argument for that, so followed her inside with only a little grumbling. The inside was just as grimy as the outside, and crowded with various scruffy-looking characters. Toph walked through the crowd as if she were walking down the street, and Sokka tried to mimic her easy confidence.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he muttered as they slid into an empty booth near the back. June was nowhere in sight, making Toph the only woman in the establishment, and he’d already seen more than one lecherous glance in their direction.

She smirked. “Don’t worry, Snoozles. I’m right here to protect you.”

“Ha ha.” He glanced up at the bar. “I’m going to get us something to drink. Want anything specific?”

“Just as long as it’s alcohol.”

He actually quirked a smile at that, and tried to put his paranoid concerns behind him as he left. Shoving his way to the front, he tried to flag down a bartender.

It took a couple tries to get anyone’s attention and a good amount of elbowing to keep his place at the counter, but finally someone came over and snapped, “What do you want?”

Sokka slapped a few coins onto the bar. “Two pints of your house ale, please. And food, if you have it.”

The bartender grunted. “Just salted nuts.”

“That’s fine.”

He pushed a bowl roughly across the counter and turned towards the tap. “Two house ales?”

“Yeah.”

“Our grog’s pretty strong,” he said. “Sure your girl can handle it?”

“ _Yes_.” Sokka glared. “Although she’s not my–”

“Not for long, I’ll wager.” The bartender sniggered. He pushed two overflowing pints towards him and nodded over his shoulder.

Sokka whipped his head around and watched in horror as a tall man in Earth Kingdom colors slid into the booth across from Toph. His hand clenched at his sides and he had to resist the urge to march right back and threaten the man with his club. They’d already been thrown out of one bar on this trip, not to mention Toph probably wouldn’t appreciate it.

So he walked back at a carefully measured pace, mug of ale in each hand and nuts balanced carefully in one elbow. But as he got closer, he saw the man leaning forward, hands creeping over the table, and his self-control evaporated.

“Hey.” He put the mug of ale down hard under the man’s nose. “You’re in my seat.”

The man started and sat back, an easy grin on his face. “Woah, didn’t see you there, Water Tribe.”

Sokka leaned over the bench, shifting his weight so the club at his waist was more visible. "See me now?"

“Hey, take it easy.” The man raised his hands. “I didn’t realize she was spoken for.”

Toph crossed her arms. “I’m not–”

“Get out of here,” Sokka snapped.

“Alright, alright.” The man started shuffling lazily out of the booth, eyes lingering on Toph.

Sokka let his hand fall to the grip of his club. “Get. Out.”

He huffed and slid out. “Spirits, tell your boyfriend to calm down.”

Sokka growled, and before Toph could say anything the man hurried away.

She kicked his shins as soon as they were alone. “What the hell, Meathead?”

“What?” He took his rightful place in the booth and a long swig of ale.

“You know what.”

He put down his mug and shoved a handful of nuts into his mouth. “Look, this place is full of unsavory characters. I just wanted to get rid of him, okay?”

She looked unimpressed. “You know I could’ve taken him, right? Without even standing up.”

It was his turn to glare. “Yeah, but now you don’t have to and we don’t get thrown out on our asses.”

She stared at him for a second, then scoffed and took a sip from her mug. “You know, I can’t actually tell if you’re lying or just an idiot.”

“Hey!”

“Don’t be offended– that’s a compliment. You’ve managed to bamboozle the world’s best lie detector.”

He rolled his eyes and took another drink. If the first half hour was any indication, he’d need more than one pint to get him through the evening.

The bartender was right– the ale _was_ strong and Sokka was beginning to feel it by the time he got up for a fourth round (Toph’s third). As the evening wore on, the bar had only gotten more crowded, and it was all he could do not to bowl people over as he elbowed his way back to the bar.

He was leaning over the counter, vying for the bartender’s attention again, when he heard it.

“…that little earthbender? The one with the funny eyes?”

 _No fucking way._ Through a monumental effort, Sokka kept himself from turning around, but his hands fell back to the table and he forgot all about the bartender.

“Yeah, all the way in the back.”

“Hottest girl this side of Omashu, hands down.”

Sokka gripped the edge of the bar.

“She looks like she could beat the living shit out of you.”

_You’re damn right._

“Worth the risk,” the first voice said.

A burst of crude laughter. “I say go for it, Jin Lo. It's not like she could see your ugly face afterwards!”

 _That’s it._ Sokka whirled around and gave the laughing man a shove, disappointed but not surprised to see that it was the same man who’d invaded their table earlier. “Say that again.”

He stumbled backwards, but Jin Lo stepped forward, smirking. “Aww come on, don’t tell me you don’t want a piece of that.”

Vaguely, Sokka was aware of a circle forming around them and several hands drifting towards the hilts of weapons, but in the moment he couldn’t bring himself to care. “She doesn’t need to see to know your face looks like the wrong end of a platypus-bear.”

Jin Lo sneered. “And how would you know what that looks like, Snow Savage?”

 _I’ll show you savage_. Everything went red, and Sokka launched himself forward with a yell, tackling him to the ground. They grappled for a minute on the ground, the crowd jeering in the background, until Jin Lo found his footing and stumbled to his feet.

Sokka rolled away to avoid a kick in the ribs and scrambled to stand up, but before he got his balance Jin Lo grabbed the front of his tunic and threw him backwards into the nearest table.

There was a crash as it buckled under his weight and Sokka felt the air rush out of his lungs, but he dove for the nearest broken table leg and managed to swing it like a club toward Jin Lo’s head. It made a satisfying _crack_ against his jaw and sent him reeling, but before Sokka knew it Jin Lo was on top of him again and he was struggling to breathe while blocking blows aimed at his shoulders and head.

Then suddenly the weight was gone and Toph was standing above him, a thunderous expression on her face.

“What the fuck is your problem?” she yelled.

Sokka hesitated, not sure who she was talking to, but before he could decide an angry-looking bartender pushed his way through the crowd. “Out, both of you! Get out!”

“We were just leaving,” Toph said, helping him to his feet.

As quickly as possible, they collected their things and made for the exit, tossing some gold coins to the bartender on the way out.

“What was that about getting thrown out on our asses?” Toph said, spitting into the dirt.

“Shut up.” He sulked, and they walked in sullen silence until the sounds of the tavern faded into the woods.

Then, because the universe hated him, thunder rumbled in the distance and the sky, which had been feeling heavy and thick all day, suddenly opened over their heads, soaking both of them instantly.

Toph muttered an oath and took a stance, bending a sizable earth tent in the center of a small copse. She immediately crawled inside, turning the earth over beneath her so it was dry.

Sokka lingered just outside, wondering if he’d be welcome or if she was still mad about the fight.

“Oh, get in here, Idiot.”

 _I guess not_. He crawled in after her, suddenly self-conscious in the tight space. He hunched awkwardly against the slanted wall opposite her, picking at a scab on his hand and staring at the ground. He wanted to apologize– for his bad temper all evening, for starting a fight and getting them thrown out, but the more he thought about it the more he didn’t want to get into why he’d lost control. It felt… complicated. Or maybe he was just stupid. He sighed and hunched over his knees.

“Are you okay?”

He blinked. “What?”

She huffed. “I mean, are you hurt? I didn’t get a good feel for what happened.”

“Oh… no, not really.” He flexed his shoulders and took a quick inventory. He’d be sore tomorrow for sure, but nothing too bad. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

His lips quirked. “Bailing my ass out. Again.”

She gave a half-laugh and dug a bundle of clothes out of her pack, using it as a pillow as she stretched out on the earth. “Don’t mention it, Meathead.”

“Still. Thanks, anyway.” He reached for his pack to do the same, doing his best not to crowd her. Since it was too warm for any sort of blanket, he put his folded bedroll under his head and tried to get comfortable on the ground.

Toph seemed to doze off quickly, but as Sokka tried to relax, all his bruises made themselves known and he became aware of his leg throbbing again as the rain fell harder.

He tossed and turned in the narrow space, trying to find a position that would let him get a little rest, and eventually Toph stirred as well, pushing up onto her elbows.

“Not enough room for you, Snoozles?”

“No, just hard to get comfortable,” he muttered.

She tapped her fingers, palms flat against the earth. “Is your leg bothering you?”

 _Spirits, how does she always know?_ “No.”

She sat up all the way and gestured towards her lap. “Give it here.”

“What?”

“I said give it here.”

He sighed and sat up perpendicular to her, and she pulled his bad leg onto her lap, hands brushing over his pants to the place where it hurt. Before he realized what was happening, her strong fingers dug into the aching muscle and tendons and began working through the knots.

He gasped as the pain spiked, then began to fade. “How do you know how to do that?”

She blew her bangs out of her face in a short puff of air. “If I can sense a heartbeat through the earth, I can sense a whole lot of other things, too. Katara may know all your chi pathways, but I know all your muscles.”

He fell silent, not sure what to say, but it felt so good he found himself relaxing under her touch. It was hard to see her face in the dark, but what shadows he could make out were as inscrutable as always, head bowed as she concentrated on his leg. 

“Jeez, how is your leg still fucked up?” she murmured. “I thought your sister was a healer or something.”

“It’s not that bad,” he said automatically. “Although I _may_ have trained too hard on it too soon. Or something like that. Who really knows.”

She gave a low, fond laugh. “Idiot.”

Despite himself, Sokka smiled, sinking further back onto his hands as she worked. “I know.”

Eventually, when the pain was not quite gone but less than he ever thought it could be, Toph released him and they settled down to sleep again. Sokka wondered if she’d also softened the ground beneath him while he was distracted, because it was so much more comfortable than before.

The air was hot and humid and she’d left the ends of the earth tent open, so he could feel the faint breeze from the rain on his face.

“I love that smell,” he murmured, not sure why he felt the need to tell her but too exhausted to care.

“What smell?” she said.

“Just… the way it smells outside when it rains.”

“Petrichor.”

“What?”

“The smell of the water mixing with dirt. Like another word for earth, combined with _ichor_ , the blood of the Spirits.”

Sokka almost laughed– _the blood of the Spirits_. As if it was something holy, or divine. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, near the edge of sleep. As he was drifting off, he remembered where he’d smelled that before– in Toph’s hair, on that first night in Gaoling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeeeee! I love a Tokka swimming lesson, and I'd like to shoutout my two favorite swimming lesson fics for inspiring this chapter– [Deep Waters](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6011806/1/Deep-Waterst) by Fandom of One and [Trust and New Tricks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/110718) by McShane
> 
> Also thanks to my amazing friend Colorblind Cryptid for listening to me rant about writing and helping me talk through all the hard parts!
> 
> And of course a huge thank you everyone who has read, kudos’d, commented, subbed, etc. Your support truly means the world <33 
> 
> (P.S. You'll notice that this is now out of seven (7) chapters!! I just started writing chapter 6 today and things were starting to feel a little rushed, so I decided to split it up so I could savor it XD)


	5. Not Flirting

The next morning, Sokka woke up to clear skies and sweet-smelling air. He turned over, expecting to see Toph still lying next to him, but instead he found the patch of dirt empty, and the earth tent gone.

“Morning, Snoozles.” She smirked at him, lounging at the base of the nearest tree, a piece of grass between her teeth.

“Morning,” he groaned, rolling onto his back and stretching his sore muscles. He reached for his pack and began digging round.

“What’re you looking for?” Toph said.

“A map,” he said. “We’re getting close to Republic City, so we should probably find the main road.”

“Don’t bother.” She spit out the piece of grass and stood up. “It’s just northwest of here, but even if I didn’t know that you wouldn’t need a map. You’ll be able to hear it.”

Less than an hour later, Sokka understood what she meant. He could hear the rumble before they crested the low peak, but he was still unprepared for the sight below them.

“Holy Spirits.”

The road was paved, and wider than any he’d seen before, even in Ba Sing Se, and it was packed with people, animals, and carts. They were moving in both directions, but there were definitely more going towards the city than away, and the stream was constant as far as he could see in either direction.

“Told you Omashu was small potatoes,” Toph said, making her way down the slope.

“No kidding.” Sokka followed her, and they found themselves melting into the crowd– surrounded by merchants driving carts filled with food, tradesmen hawking their wares to anyone who would listen, and travelers who looked just them, walking with all their possessions tied up on their backs. Most of them looked tired, wearing threadbare clothes and circles under their eyes. Sokka wondered what they were hoping for– and if they’d find it in the brand-new capital of the brand-new nation.

Republic City didn’t have guards like Omashu, but traffic still slowed as they neared the edge of the city.

“So,” Sokka said as their pace decreased. “Any ideas on what to do while we’re here?”

Toph shrugged. “You’re the idea guy.”

“Yeah, well you live here.” Something else occurred to him. “Hey, are you going to want to stop by your academy while we’re in the area?”

“No.”

He waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. “Can we at least stay at your place tonight?”

“My place is in Yu Dao, which is all the way on the other side of the city and halfway up a hill,” she said.

Sokka didn’t see how that was much of an obstacle after all the walking they’d already done, but decided to let it go for now. “What about your dad’s place– that’s in the city, right?”

Her lip curled. “What makes you think I’d want to stay with him?”

He held up his hands. “Just tossing around some ideas. Where do you think we should stay?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

The road veered closer to the water and a strong wind blew in from the north. Sokka smelled salt in the air, and when he craned his neck to catch a glimpse of Yue Bay. “What about Air Temple Island? Aang and Katara are probably away for their anniversary so we’d have the place to ourselves.”

“Except for those Air Acolytes.” Toph said. “Do you really want to hang out with them?”

“Look, I don’t understand why we can’t just go to your place. I mean, it can’t be _that_ far away, right?”

She sighed. “It’s not, it’s just that this is supposed to be a vacation for me, you know? And if we go to my place it’s not going to feel like that. I’d rather just re-stock our supplies and keep going like before.”

“…Okay.” He felt like there was more to it than that, and maybe if he waited, she’d tell him.

“You wouldn’t understand,” she finally said, “after living in a tiny village on an island for so long, but there are always _responsibilities_ when you live in the city, whether you want them or not. And I just want to avoid those while we’re here.”

“Alright,” he agreed, although he still didn’t understand how these ‘responsibilities’ would find them. “We’ll just be in and out. What could go wrong?”

In hindsight, Sokka probably shouldn’t have promised to be ‘in and out’ of the Republic City market. Forget Omashu or even Ba Sing Se, this place was _incredible_. He’d never seen such a diverse array of stalls– merchants from every nation could be seen on the same block, and every other tent was selling something cool he’d never seen before.

“Toph, check out this fishing rod! It’s made of some sort of really light metal– and feel it! More flexible than bone.”

“Woah, when you look in these glasses you can see a picture of Ba Sing Se, except it looks three dimensional!”

“Okay, Toph, you’re actually going to love this one– you can speak into it, and then it’ll play it back!” He pulled her into the tent indicated by the flashy-looking sign stamped with a Fire Nation emblem.

“Ten copper pieces per demonstration,” the merchant said, stepping firmly in front of them.

“Fine.” Sokka took out the money and turned back to Toph. “What should I say?”

“Hmm…” She grinned. “Do your best Zuko impression.”

“You got it.” He bent over the cone and cleared his throat. “ _How could you say that!_ ”

Toph nodded. “Not bad, not bad.”

“Aw, come on.”

She shrugged. “Mai’s is better.”

“That’s not fair, she’s his wife.” Sokka leaned back on the table, prepared to keep arguing if it would keep that smirk on her face, but the merchant interrupted.

“Ready to hear your own voice played back to you?”

“Sorry– yes.” Sokka turned back to the machine.

The merchant turned a crank and Sokka couldn’t keep his jaw from dropping open when they heard it– “ _How could you say that!”_ Scratchy and a little muffled, but undeniably _his voice_. Recorded, and coming out of _a machine_.

Even Toph looked mildly impressed. “It’s as if the Firelord himself were with us.”

“Ha, so my impression _was_ good.”

“That thing makes your voice sound deeper.”

“Hey, my voice is plenty deep.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

He thanked the merchant and they pushed their way out of the heavy cloth tent, continuing through the market. The street had only gotten more crowded, and they were forced to walk closer together to avoid losing each other. It seemed like their shoulders would bump every other second, and Sokka wondered if that was new or if he was just noticing it now.

It certainly wasn’t a _bad_ feeling– in fact, he thought he could rather get used to it. Once in a while, their fingers would brush and he had to suppress the urge to wrap his hand around hers. Not because he had to lead her anywhere, just because it might feel… nice.

The thought made his chest feel funny, and he wondered if she could feel his heartbeat change with all the footsteps pounding around them. But before he could find the will to act on any silly ideas, a messenger hawk swooped out of the sky and landed with a screech on Toph’s shoulder.

Her lighthearted expression immediately fell, and Sokka knew why before he opened the tube and removed the roll of parchment.

“Speaking of the Firelord,” he said. “It looks like he and Mai are in town and are inviting us to stay at the embassy for dinner.”

“See, I told you,” Toph sulked. “ _Responsibilities_.”

“Relax.” Sokka scribbled a response on the back of the letter and put it back in the tube. “It’s just dinner with some old friends. Plus, real beds tonight for a change.”

But Toph’s frown didn’t lift as he pulled out another map for directions to the Fire Nation embassy.

“What I can’t figure out,” Sokka said as they wound their way towards the city center, “is how that hawk found you. And how did they even know we were here?”

Toph snorted. “I hate to break it to you, but I’m not exactly anonymous around here. Something about being a blind earthbender who never wears shoes and traveled with the Avatar and runs the world’s only metalbending academy right outside of town.”

“…Oh. Right.” He frowned, beginning to realize what she meant by responsibilities always finding her.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure at least half the people who’ve seen us recognized you, too,” she said, elbowing him in the ribs. “There are only so many Water Tribe warriors I could be traveling with.”

He gasped and staggered away in a show of mock offense. “What other Water Tribe warriors are you hanging out with? Are they taller than me? Better-looking?”

“Definitely.” She laughed. “On both counts. Incredibly handsome giants, all of them. Jaws so chiseled I could almost bend them.”

He chuckled and fell back in step with her, subconsciously rubbing his chin. “Who says my jaw’s not chiseled?”

She shrugged primly. “I’m sure I have no idea.”

“Yeah, right.” He reached out to pinch her side, but she darted ahead of him and came to a stop in front of a stately-looking building next to town hall.

“We’re here.”

He glanced at his map. “Yeah, this is it– wait, did you know where we were going this whole time?”

She threw him a smug smile. “As you said before, _I live here._ ”

He jogged the last few steps to catch up with her and waved his map in her face. “Then why’d you spend the last hour letting me fuck around with _this_?”

She laughed again. “I guess I just couldn’t deny you the satisfaction of being the Map Guy.”

He groaned and shoved the map into his pocket. “Spirits, I hate you.”

“I know.” She grinned over her shoulder, hopping up the marble steps, and Sokka couldn’t help but return it.

Mai and Zuko greeted them in the front hall. To Sokka’s surprise, Zuko pulled him into a hug.

“It’s good to see you, Sokka.”

“Good to see you, too.” Sokka clapped him on the back. “Aang’s rubbing off on you.”

“Uhh, maybe.” Zuko stepped back awkwardly and gestured behind them. “Dinner’s almost ready, if you guys are hungry.”

“Always!” Toph dropped her pack unceremoniously in the hallway and scampered ahead of them, following her seismic sense to the dining room.

Sokka found himself staring after her, unable to control the grin spreading across his face, until he caught Zuko and Mai looking at him. The smile dropped and he cleared his throat, looking awkwardly anywhere else.

Zuko looked like he wanted to say something, but Mai took his arm and started walking after Toph. “Come on,” she said. “Before it gets cold.”

“How’s the Fire Lord-ing going, Sparky?” Toph asked over bowls of Fire Nation-style noodles.

Zuko huffed and ran a hand through his hair. “Busy. Stressful. Makes winning the war seem like the easy part.”

“Victory is boring,” Mai drawled

Sokka chuckled. “Yeah, it would’ve been way more exciting to let Ozai burn it all to the ground.”

“Trust me, weeks of debate over livestock tariffs will make you seriously consider it,” Zuko said.

“Is that what brings you to Republic City?”

“No, we’re here for commerce negotiations with Chief Arnook. We’ve reached a bit of a standstill and Uncle suggested things would be less tense on neutral territory.”

Sokka nodded. “Probably a good idea. Especially if you couldn’t arrange it so Aang could be there, too.”

Zuko sighed. “That would’ve been ideal, but he’s already so busy and I didn’t want to disrupt his and Katara’s anniversary plans…”

“What he means is he pig-chickened out of it.” Mai smirked.

“Whatever. _You_ try telling Katara she can’t have the alone time with her husband she was promised.” He glared into his soup as everyone chuckled, then tried to change the subject.“So Sokka, what’s the news from Kyoshi Island?”

“Oh, you know… the usual.” Sokka rubbed the back of his neck.

Mai raised a sharp eyebrow. “When will you be going back?”

 _Damn, she doesn’t miss a trick, does she?_ “Uhh, I don’t know… probably not for a while. Or maybe ever.” He winced and ducked his head to avoid the stares of everyone around him.

Zuko’s awkward sympathy was probably the worst. “That’s rough, buddy.”

Another wince. “Yeah, it’s… well it’s not great.”

“So… what’re you going to do now?”

It was such a simple and obvious question (and trust Zuko to ask it), but it made Sokka’s insides turn to ice as he swallowed the first, most honest answer. _I have no idea_.

Then Toph spoke up. “We’re going on a quest.”

“A quest?” Mai said.

“You know, a long journey where you find something at the end.”

“What exactly are you planning to find?” Zuko was still looking at Sokka.

“Captain Boomerang’s Space Sword, of course,” Toph said. “It’s gotta be somewhere in that airship graveyard.”

“…Okay,” he said slowly. “But what about after that?”

Sokka squirmed and stared hard at the corner past Zuko’s elbow. He opened his mouth, hoping a satisfactory answer would come to him, but his mind drew a blank and instead he just shrugged, turning back to his food in defeat.

Zuko continued, “Because I was thinking… Republic City’s council needs good Water Tribe representation, from the South Pole as well as the North–”

“Of course,” Sokka found his voice. “Have you asked Bato? He’s been my dad’s right hand since–”

“I was talking about you,” Zuko said impatiently.

Sokka dropped his chopsticks.

“Don’t you think it would be perfect? You’re a war hero, for one, not to mention well-traveled. Plus you’d be a great voice for the non-benders–”

“Alright, alright.” He put up his hands. “It’s just… a lot of responsibility.” _Dammit,_ why did Toph have to be right all the time?

“Just think about it, okay?” Zuko said. “You could do a lot of good here. Plus, you’d be close to Aang and Katara and whatever niece or nephew they’re currently creating on Ember Island.”

“ _Agh_.” He gagged. “You’re not making a great case for yourself, Jerkbender.”

Zuko rolled his eyes. “What I’m trying to say is that we’re all settling down, Sokka. Maybe you should think about doing the same.”

Sokka felt Toph stiffen beside him and knew the instant before she did it that she was going to earthbend him in the shins.

“ _Ow–_ son of a bitch _._ ”

Mai ignored her grimacing husband and leveled her impassive stare on Toph. “You know you’re just as bad as Sokka, right? Remind us how long you’ve been on _sabbatical_ from your academy.”

“Oh yeah, that’s another thing,” Zuko said. “Toph, if you’re looking for a career change the city could really use a new chief of police. From what Aang tells me, the current one is okay but you know the population’s exploding and the crime problem is only getting worse. They really need good leadership.”

Toph nearly choked on her second bowl of noodles. “ _Me?_ Chief of police? You know I was once a wanted criminal, right?”

Zuko shrugged. “We’ve all been there.”

“So you’ll know exactly what to look for.” Mai didn’t even blink.

Toph snorted. “Well you can forget it, Sparky. This is your most ridiculous idea yet.”

Zuko frowned. “So you’re not even going to think about it?”

“What’s to think about? Cops are liars and snitches and I’m not about to become Chief Snitch.”

“Come on, Toph, be reasonable.” Zuko put down his chopsticks. “This city needs good leadership and someone to keep order, or it’s going to implode. You’ve been around since the beginning, and I know you like to pretend not to care, but you want it to succeed as much as Aang and I.”

Toph slammed her hands on the table, making all the bowls rattle. “What gave you the impression I don’t care?”

“I don’t know, maybe the fact that you seem perfectly okay to abandon it the moment you get bored.”

“Who says I’m bored?”

“Oh, drop the act. We both know you haven’t been invested in that academy for months, maybe even years. You were looking for an excuse to bail, but this ‘quest’ with Sokka is only going to last so long.”

“Hey, leave Sokka out of this!” At this point, they were both standing, leaning across the table with their voices raised. Toph’s tea had been upset and was dripping onto the floor, but everyone ignored it. “Where I go and what I do is none of your fucking business, so you can stick your plans for my life back up your fiery butt.”

Zuko’s hands curled into fists, smoke rising from his fingers. “ _Agni_ , you sound like such a child! You can’t keep wandering around forever doing whatever you want. One of these days you’re going to have to take some responsibility and grow up!”

“That’s it!” Toph growled and drew back her fist, but before she could earthbend Zuko into next week, two shuriken buried themselves in the table between them.

“Enough!” Mai shouted. “You’re both acting like children.”

Zuko checked himself immediately and sat back down, smoke dissipating from his hands as he muttered, “Sorry.”

Toph stayed standing, although she fell out of her earthbending stance. “Well, I’m not. Not everyone has to ‘grow up’ the same way you do, Sparky, so stop trying tell me how to live my life.”

“That’s not what I was–”

She stamped her foot.

“Okay, maybe a little bit, and I’m sorry.”He winced and rubbed his leg again. “But it’s because I’m trying to help you, in case you’re looking for a change of pace. It’s just something for you to think about.”

Toph glared at him, but sat back down. “Fine.”

“Thank you.”

Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief as the tension evaporated, and Sokka took the opportunity to stand up and stretch his legs. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I could use a drink. You guys got anything good lying around?”

Mai actually cracked a smile. “I think we’ll be able to find something.”

To Sokka’s delight, ‘something’ turned out to be fire whiskey from ’81, and it was _damn good_. Armed with four tumblers and fruit tarts for dessert, they lounged around the sitting room talking about lighter things. Toph and Sokka each had a couch to themselves to spread out, but Mai and Zuko settled together on one, and Sokka couldn’t help but think they looked kind of cozy, all pressed against each other like that.

The conversation quickly devolved into reminiscing– recounting their greatest adventures in a lazy, half-drunk way and arguing over the details.

“And then Zuko captured me and Aang while the pirates had Katara, but I totally played you guys against each other and we got away!” Sokka said.

“No, that’s backwards,” said Zuko. “I had Katara and the pirates had Aang.”

“…Oh yeah, I guess that makes more sense,” Sokka admitted, pouring himself some more whiskey. “But I still totally played you guys against each other.”

Toph snorted. “The real shame is that Fire Prince Hotpants actually managed to capture you guys. He never would’ve stood a chance if I’d been there.”

Sokka laughed. “Yeah, probably not. Zuko, did we ever tell you how we found this one?”

“You haven’t told me,” said Mai.

That was all the excuse Sokka needed. “Oh, it’s a good one.” He tossed back the rest of his drink and sat up straighter. “Okay so there we were– me and Aang and Katara knocking around Gaoling looking for an earthbending teacher, where we hear about this thing called Earth Rumble VI, which is supposed to have the best earthbenders in the world.”

“An illegal earthbending fighting ring,” Zuko translated for Mai.

“Yeah, anyway– at first we thought for sure the best one was this guy called The Boulder, who was totally awesome and beat everyone pretty much immediately, until he was about to win the championship and then _this girl,_ ” he gestured at Toph, “beat him in like, two moves! And that’s how we knew she was the greatest earthbender alive!”

“Mmm,” Toph swirled the whiskey around in her glass. “And then I seem to remember you guys barging into my parents’ home and getting me kidnapped by that rat-snake Xin Fu.”

“Details, details.” Sokka waved his hand. “The point is, we busted you out and then you beat up all those earthbenders at once and then ran away with us and became the most awesome member of our group.”

Toph smiled despite herself, her cheeks red from the alcohol and lower lip caught between her teeth.

Sokka found himself smiling back, vaguely aware he was grinning like an idiot but unable to stop. For a second, he had a crazy impulse to get up and join her on her couch, so he could curl up against her like Mai and Zuko, just to see if it was as cozy as it looked.

The Mai yawned, startling him back to the present. “Great story, Sokka,” she said, in that tone that always made him wonder if she was being sarcastic. “Remind me to ask Katara for the real version later.”

“Hey, what was wrong with that version?”

She ignored him and climbed gracefully off of Zuko and stretched her arms. “I’m going to bed. Don’t get too drunk, Zuko. I doubt _hungover_ is best way to win over the Water Tribe talking heads.”

“I won’t.” He leaned up to give her a quick kiss.

To Sokka’s mild surprise, Toph put down her drink stood up as well. “You know, I think I’ll hit the hay, too. I don’t suppose you could direct me towards the nicest guest room, your royal pointy-ness?”

“Of course.” Mai didn’t even blink at the nickname, just turned and led Toph to what Sokka was sure would be no more than the third best guest room.

Zuko watched them leave, and waited until their steps had long faded down the hallway before turning back him. “So,” he said, leaning back on his sofa. “You and Toph.”

“What about us?” Sokka narrowed his eyes and wondered where Zuko was planning to take this.

“Nothing.” Zuko dropped his gaze and sat back. “Remind me– whose idea was this ‘quest’ of yours?”

“Um,” Shit, he actually had to think about that for a second. “Hers, I think. Why do you ask?”

Zuko shrugged. “Just curious. So where’ve you been so far?”

“Well, uh,” Sokka thought back. “We ran into each other in Gaoling, then sort of wandered north and blundered into the Foggy Swamp, where we got a ride to Omashu. Then after a detour through the Cave of Two Lovers–”

“The what?”

“The supposed tomb of the first two earthbenders– it’s not important– we crossed the border and have just been slowly walking up the coast.” It was weird to think about, since it felt like so much had happened since then, but the Cave of Two Lovers was the last real landmark they visited.

Zuko just stared at him.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he shook his head. “It’s just that– why are you bothering to walk all this way? You know you could’ve gotten an airship from Omashu, right? Or you could’ve sent Toph’s father a hawk and had one come to Gaoling.”

 _Really?_ That was news to him. “Well, it’s more fun this way,” he said. “You know, I was once told not to focus so much on the destination.”

Zuko snorted. “Since when have you believed that?”

Sokka put down his drink. “You know, if you have something to say, just say it.”

“Fine.” Zuko sat up straight and leaned forward. “I think taking an impulsive, extended road trip is a really terrible way to deal with a break-up.”

“ _What_?”

“You know why? Because it’s just putting off the inevitable– all that traveling and flirting with Toph has to end at some point, and then you’ll realize you haven’t actually dealt with the break-up at all.”

Sokka spluttered. “First of all, since when were you Mr. Relationship Expert? And second– _flirting_? I am not– there has been _no flirting_ on this road trip, none whatsoever.”

Zuko barked a laugh of disbelief, and Sokka felt his cheeks redden as he thought about their afternoon at the market, then his whole face heat up as he remembered their ‘swimming lesson.’

Unfortunately, Zuko noticed and his scornful expression changed to one of mild horror. “Tell me you haven’t already–”

“Of course not!” Sokka snapped. “I would never do that, I don’t think about Toph like that.” Again, he felt his face get hot and heart pound as if he was lying. Except he wasn’t lying… right? Unbidden, his mind conjured up images of Toph that first night in Gaoling, all dressed up at the market, and then Toph floating in the lagoon, hardly dressed at all…

“Spirits, you’re more blind than she is,” Zuko said, taking a long sip of whiskey.

“No, I’m not,” Sokka said, although it didn’t even sound believable to him.

Zuko shook his head. “Look, we clearly don’t have time to get into all your weird, tangled-up feelings or this crazy relationship you guys seem to have, but I just want to say–” he waited until Sokka made eye contact with him, “you should really think about _why_ you agreed to go on this trip, and about the reasons she offered in the first place.” 

“…What’s that supposed to mean?” Sokka said weakly, slumping backwards in spite of himself under Zuko’s intense stare.

“It means that if there are any ulterior motives behind this ‘quest,’ acknowledging them might keep someone from getting hurt.”

At that prospect, Sokka felt his heart stutter and blood freeze. He hadn’t even considered that. “Who says anyone’s going to get hurt?”

Zuko must’ve seen the fear on his face, and quickly softened his tone. “I’m not saying anyone _will_ ,” he said. “I just want you to be careful.”

Sokka tried to flash a cocky grin, although he was sure the result was a weak approximation. “I’m always careful.”

* * *

That night, Sokka hoped to fall into a blissful, dreamless sleep, but of course the relaxing night in a real bed he’d imagined that morning did not appear to be in the cards.

 _Stupid Zuko,_ he thought, rolling over for what felt like the thousandth time. _Asking all sorts of awkward, personal questions_.

Try as he might, he couldn’t stop turning their conversation over and over again in his head. Which was especially frustrating because its contents had him so muddled and confused it was difficult to remember what was actually said.

 _I_ am _over the break-up with Suki,_ he thought with conviction in response to one of Zuko’s earlier points. _I haven’t thought about her in weeks_. That realization surprised him a little, and he had to take a moment to stare up at the red canopy and wonder why that was.

 _It’s probably because I realized I’m not in love with her anymore_ , he thought with a pang of guilt, rolling onto his side again. Was that okay? Was he a horrible person for moving on so quickly? 

_No,_ said another voice that sounded suspiciously like Toph. _It’s good that you’re moving on, and finding happiness in other things_.

 _Exactly_. He flipped his pillow over and turned onto his stomach, trying to relax into the cool fabric. _Absolutely nothing wrong with that._

Really, this was all Zuko’s fault for questioning what was working so well before and sending him into this horrible spiral of guilt and self-doubt.

 _Toph was right_ , he realized with a flash of irritation. _It was a bad idea to come here_.

By the time the sun rose, it was enough to wake him from the light doze he’d managed to achieve, and he resigned himself to a mostly sleepless night. Rubbing the fatigue from his eyes, he rolled out of bed and dressed, then packed his things and slipped out of the room. He hesitated after stepping into the hallway, realizing he didn’t know which room Toph was staying in, but the problem was solved when she emerged from a door two rooms over, also fully dressed with her pack slung over her shoulder.

He was about to comment on the coincidence when she grinned at him and said, “Finally, Snoozles. I’ve been waiting on you for hours.”

 _Of course_. “You about ready to blow this joint?”

“Ages ago.” She adjusted the straps on her bag and strode past him towards the front of the building. “And we’d better get going, Firelord Hotman’ll be up any minute.”

“Oh yeah– the sunrise.” Sokka lowered his voice to a whisper and crept behind her down the hallway. Just to be safe, they didn’t speak again until they were out the front door.

“You were right,” Sokka admitted as soon as he felt like they could speak at a normal volume, walking through the sleepy early-morning streets of Republic City. “Responsibility did manage to find us.”

“Told you,” Toph said, because she could never help it. “Can you believe him? Shoving jobs in our faces, trying to tell us what to do?”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Crazy.” But he lapsed quickly into silence again, admitting to himself that as annoying as Zuko was, he had made one good point. Sokka had no idea what he was going to do once this quest was over.

As they walked, Toph was quieter than usual as well, although Sokka didn’t find it to be an uncomfortable silence. They both had a lot on their minds, after all, and what better way to process than to walk as has hard as they could all morning.

Which is exactly what they did. With only a short break just after leaving the city to eat some dried fruit and drink some water, they walked without stopping all morning, until the sun was high above them and the forest echoed with the rattling drone of cicada-ants.

Sokka broke first, stumbling off the path and dropping his pack, collapsing on the ground next to it.

Toph wasn’t far behind, pulling sticky strands of hair off the back of her neck and fanning herself with her shirt.

“Fuck, it’s hot,” he said when he got his breath back.

“It’s so hot… it’s _so_ hot…” Toph trailed off, wiping sweat from her neck.

“I could go to sleep right here,” he said, tugging off his belt and pulling at his tunic where it was stuck to his skin. Under the oppressive heat, he could feel the hours of walking and mostly-sleepless night catching up to him.

“Same.” Toph sprawled out on the grass next to him, resting her head on her hands. “Want me to bend us an earth tent?”

“Nah,” he murmured, already drifting off. “Too hot. Besides, we won’t sleep that long. Just a quick nap…”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Real quick.”

When Sokka jerked awake again, he wasn’t sure at first what had woken him up. The air was significantly cooler than before, and as he got his bearings he realized that the sun was now so low in the sky it was almost dusk.

 _So much for ‘real quick,’_ he thought, rubbing his face and slumping back down. Toph was still sound asleep next to him, and he reached over to wake her and suggest they set up camp here for the night, when he heard a twig snap behind him.

Before he was fully aware of what was happening, he rolled onto his knees and hurled his boomerang towards the sound. But he hardly had time to relish in the muffled _thump_ and cry of surprise before five more figures dropped from the trees around them.

“Shit, Toph– it’s an ambush!” he said, drawing his sword as she stumbled to her feet behind him, so they were back-to-back facing their attackers.

“And two of them are earthbenders,” she said, catching a boulder from the left just before it hit him broadside.

“You take care of those guys,” he said. “I’ve got your back.”

“Same here, Meathead.”

And then the fight began.

Later, Sokka would reflect that it really shouldn’t have been much of a fight. Their opponents weren’t much more than bandits, even if they seemed uncommonly tenacious, but they’d been caught by surprise and were disoriented after sleeping all afternoon. Sokka in particular felt at a disadvantage, as his visibility decreased with the sinking sun.

His boomerang didn’t appear to be coming back, probably caught in the bushes after hitting that first attacker, so he was left with his sword as his main defense, which worked great until he had to bring up his club to fend off another wayward boulder.

“Hey Toph, what about those earthbenders!” he yelled, still parrying dual daos coming from his other side.

She grunted, barely ducking a bola and knocking the other earthbender hard into a tree. “This isn’t as easy as it looks!”

Sokka cursed and finally disarmed the swordsman, giving him a resounding blow with his club before going after the man with the bolas, probably their most effective weapon against Toph.

With no time for clever attacks, he tackled the man bodily and they grappled until he could get in a hit with the hilt of his sword. Breathing hard, he turned back to rejoin Toph, who was favoring her right leg and still fending off an earthbender and a woman wielding a wicked-looking butterfly sword. Then he did a quick headcount and realized that they were missing someone.

 _Shit_. He raised his sword again, barely time to catch the swing of a massive wooden club wielded by an even bigger thug. The club caught on the blade, and he had to drop his own club to keep the sword from being torn out of his hands. There was a brief struggle, which ended abruptly when the man swung a massive fist towards Sokka’s head.

He went down hard with a cry of pain and surprise, blinking through the stars clouding his vision and feeling around on the ground for his fallen club. But before he could, the entire ground heaved under his knees, sending the remaining bandits stumbling backwards and giving Toph a chance to rapid-fire boulders into each of their chests.

“Nice work,” he said, slowly climbing to his feet as the bandits limped and stumbled back into the woods.

She grunted, clearly as dissatisfied as he was with the way the fight had gone. The right leg of her pants was torn, and there was a trail of blood slowly trickling down her ankle.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine.” She tore a strip of cloth from the hem of her ruined pants and tied it around her thigh. “Are you sure that’s all of them?”

“I only saw five,” he said, tugging his sword free of the club and looking around for his boomerang.

“Really?” She frowned, crouching down to put a palm flat on the ground. “I swear I felt more…”

“Yeah I got a sixth with my boomerang early on.” He began walking across the clearing towards where it might’ve landed.

“Wait– Sokka!” She stomped her foot and he heard the distant cry from somewhere up the hill, but it was too late. He stopped just in time to see the arrow before it buried itself in his shoulder.

He dropped his sword and stumbled backwards, ears suddenly ringing and head aching from the hit he’d taken earlier. He was vaguely aware of his breath coming in gasps, and tried desperately to blink through the black spots clouding his eyes.

Toph was shouting something from above him– since when was he on the ground? And he wanted to listen to her– she looked terrified– but her voice was so far away and he was tired.

He reached out a clumsy hand for her arm, but barely managed to brush her wrist before everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mwahahahaha…… 
> 
> As always, thanks so much to everyone who's supported this fic!! It means the world and I couldn't do it without you guys <33


	6. Metaphorically Speaking

Consciousness returned slowly, and Sokka couldn’t say it was welcome. His head was throbbing and felt three sizes too big, and his _shoulder–_

He groaned and squinted at the wall. Smooth white stone, faintly illuminated by light coming from behind him. _Spirits, where am I?_ He shifted, trying to prop himself up on his good arm, but a hand on his chest forced him back down.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

He collapsed back onto the thin pillow beneath his head, the floor rocking beneath him. He moaned again, trying to make his mouth move into actual words with little success.

“Here, drink this.”

Another hand cupped his face and he felt the edge of a dish pressed to his lips. He choked and coughed on the first swallow, but then began to drink greedily, breathing easier as the coolness of the water began to beat away some of the cobwebs in his head.

He blinked a few times, and stared up at the person bending over him, her hand still pressed to his face. “Toph?”

She froze and took her hand away.

For a moment, he almost whined at the loss.

“The one and only.”

The corners of his mouth twitched up. The one and only, indeed. “What happened?” He glanced around the room, bare except for the cot he was lying on and a small window high on the wall. The air smelled faintly of perfume. “Where are we?”

“You got yourself shot,” she said, fingers brushing lightly over bandages wrapped tightly around his chest and shoulder. “We’re at the abbey outside Yu Dao.”

Ah. That explained the smell. “How bad is it?” He reached up to touch the bandages himself, but she caught his wrist.

“It could’ve been worse.” She took a deep breath. “You’re lucky they have waterbenders here now. The arrow nicked an artery and you lost– you lost a lot of blood when they took it out.”

That explained the dizziness.

“Also a concussion from that knock on the head.”

It was slowly coming back to him. He dragged up a hand to rub his head. “Fucking bandits.”

“Yeah.” Toph flicked at an invisible bit of dirt on the floor. “Probably former Yu Dao Resistance fighters with a grudge, to be honest. Attacking idiot city slickers who fell asleep in the middle of the day.”

Sokka groaned. That stupid Harmony Restoration Movement was just the gift that kept on giving. He remembered the blood on her ankle after the fight. “How’s your leg?”

She grunted and shifted her position on the floor. She’d changed into new pants, but while one leg was tucked underneath her as she sat on the floor next to his pallet, the other was stretched out to the side.

“It hurts,” she said, rubbing the place where the bandage must’ve been beneath her clothes. “But it’s nothing compared to you.” She gestured vaguely to his torso. “I can’t believe I missed that archer,” she muttered, her hand curled into a fist. “I was so stupid.”

“Hey, hey.” His hand flopped out and he reached for her wrist. “’S’okay. I’m okay.”

She shook her head. “Barely. That woman with the sword got in a lucky hit.” She rubbed her thigh again. “Made it hard to earthbend, hard to see.”

“’S’okay,” he said again, although his tongue felt thick in his mouth and he was getting dizzy again. His shoulder started to throb, a second pulse beating in time with his heart. “‘M glad you’re okay.”

Toph smiled and took his hand, rubbing her thumb along his wrist in an uncharacteristically tender motion. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“Y’should go to sleep, too,” he muttered, as his head rolled to the side and his eyes grew heavy. She looked tired too, and he wondered how long she’d been sitting up next to him. “Sleep… sleep ’s good.”

“Yeah, Sokka,” she said. “Sleep is good.”

So he slept, thinking as he drifted off how nice it sounded when she said his real name.

Things became a little hazy after that, as he drifted in and out of consciousness. He was pretty sure he ran a fever at some point, because once he woke up cold, which shouldn’t happen at the height of summer. Then he was warm again and he thought he was back in an earth tent, lying pressed against someone who wasn’t Suki. She was facing away from him, and strands of soft black hair tickled his face and it smelled like petrichor. But when he opened his eyes, she was gone and a woman in a blue gown leaned over him, her hands surrounded by a glowing layer of water. He thought it was Katara, but when he tried to ask she just shook her head and pressed her hands to his shoulder.

When the room finally came into focus again, Toph was sitting on the floor again with a bowl of bread in one hand and a pitcher of water in the other.

“Welcome back,” she said, extending the pitcher.

He blinked slowly back at her. “Y’re here.”

She huffed and blew her bangs out of her face, but he saw her lips twitch up at the corners. “Keep up, Meathead. I said I’d be here when you woke up, didn’t I?”

 _I guess she did_. Slowly, he levered himself up on his good arm and took the pitcher of water. As the water touched his lips, he realized how thirsty he was and quickly downed half its contents. His stomach rumbled and Toph smiled, handing him a roll from the bowl. He finished it in three bites and she laughed when he eyed the second one.

“Be careful,” she said, tearing it in half and handing him the smaller piece. “You’ve been pretty sick.”

He was absolutely _starving_ , but he nodded and tried to slow down. Although he was awake and alert, his muscles felt kitten-weak and the stubble on his chin meant he’d been out for several days. He rubbed his face and chewed thoughtfully. “How long have we been here?”

“Almost a week,” she said. “Your fever broke last night but Kita, the waterbender who’s been taking care of you, says it’ll be a while before you’re back at full strength.”

He groaned, leaning back against the wall. “We were so close…”

“We still are close,” Toph said. “The Wulong Forest is only a few days’ walk from here, and it’s not going anywhere, so we’re staying until the healers say you can leave.”

“Alright.”

She stared at him. “Wow, I expected more of a fight.”

He shrugged, then winced. “I don’t know, it would be kind of a bummer for me to die when we’ve gotten this far.”

“I’ll say.” She looked down at her knees, and Sokka felt the humor drain from the conversation. It was beginning to sink in– the fact that their quest was almost over. How long had it been since he left Kyoshi Island? It felt like half a lifetime ago, but it couldn’t have been more than a month or two…

“Look, Toph…” he began, trailing off when he realized he had no idea what to say.

“Yeah, Sokka?” She looked up at him, and again he got a swoop-y feeling in his stomach when she said his name.

“I–” He shifted forward awkwardly, leaning towards her from the cot. “Recent events aside, you know these have been like, the best few months of my life, right?”

“Even better than traveling with the avatar?” she said, trying to deflect.

“Hands down,” he said, relishing the grin she was fighting on her face. “We make a pretty great team, Beifong.”

“A team that gets lost in a swamp on our first day traveling.”

“And gets thrown out of two separate bars.”

“And runs away from the Firelord when he offers them jobs.” She was leaning forward, too.

“Then is immediately attacked by bandits.” His shoulder was throbbing from the awkward position, but he didn’t lean away.

“A team that gets you shot.” One corner of her mouth turned down and she put a hand on his good arm. They were so close he could feel her breath on his face.

His eyes blinked slowly. It would be so easy to just…

There was a faint sound from the doorway and Toph’s head whipped around.

A woman in a blue tunic and grey-streaked hair holding a bucket of water stepped back, her eyes wide. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to interrupt–”

“It’s okay, Kita.” Toph sat back, and Sokka let out a long breath he didn’t know he was holding. His heart was pounding and he felt dizzy, although not in the same, sick way as before.

“Yes, it’s okay.” He sat back and gestured for Kita to enter.

“I’m glad to see you’re feeling better,” she said, taking Toph’s place by his cot.

“I am, thanks to you and the sisters,” he said. “I am honored to receive such excellent care at the abbey.”

“Please, the honor is ours,” Kita said as she unwrapped the bandages covering his chest and shoulder.

When she reached the wound, a sharp-smelling salve made the cloth stick and pull at his skin and he gasped. He reached out for something to hold onto, and was surprised to feel Toph catch his hand. She let him squeeze it hard as Kita cleaned and examined the wound. The fever had passed, but the tissue around the stitches where the arrow had gone in was still red and swollen, meaning the infection wasn’t completely gone.

Finally, Kita bent water out of the bucket and pressed it to the injury. The coolness felt like heaven on his skin and the pain started to recede. He became aware of his death grip on Toph’s hand and loosened his hold, but she didn’t pull away, so he found himself relaxing into it, focusing on the feel of her palm in his as Kita re-dressed the wound and they helped him lie back down.

“Good job,” Kita said, like he’d done anything but sit there. “It’ll be all uphill from here, I promise.”

“Thank you.” He felt his eyes drifting closed again as she gathered her things to leave.

Toph made to stand as well. “I’ll let you get some rest–”

He felt her hand sliding out from his. “No, wait.”

She paused.

“Just a minute.” He adjusted his grip, bringing it closer to his side. “Wait just a minute.”

She was still holding his hand when he fell asleep.

* * *

They decided to stay at the abbey while Sokka recovered his strength, and although he was up and walking around a few days after his fever broke, Toph didn’t seem like she was in any particular hurry to leave. And if he was honest, Sokka wasn’t either.

It was sort of weird, he reflected. The last time he’d been to the abbey was in the days following Sozin’s Comet, where he, Suki, and Toph were treated for their various injuries and they waited for transportation to Caldera City. Back then, he’d been chomping at the bit to get moving again as soon as he was mobile, tearing open every hawk from the Fire Nation for news and generally making a nuisance of himself until Aang arrived on Appa, having gone ahead on a warship supervise the transport and proper imprisonment of the former Phoenix King.

Part of it was impatience to see his father and Katara alive and well, but he could admit that most of it was that he hated being in between places. Even after spending the better part of a year traveling the world, he still thought best part was reaching the destination. He supposed he’d never been particularly patient, and he liked the small amount of certainty it granted, and the sense of security.

So it was weird that he now felt almost no inclination to reach the end of this journey. Or maybe it wouldn’t be weird if he actually stopped to examine it… but that seemed like a sticky train of thought, so he didn’t follow it.

So he tried to live in the moment, focusing on more immediate concerns like keeping up with his swordsmanship and getting his arm back in shape. He spent most of his waking hours in the abbey’s courtyard, practicing forms and throwing his boomerang in smooth arcs over the low buildings.

“I guess it’s lucky you’re not left-handed,” Toph said, lounging in a chair she’d bent out of the flagstones.

“Eh.” Sokka shrugged, catching the boomerang as it came back to his right hand. “I wouldn’t say I’m either-handed.”

She laughed. “What?”

“I mean for most things, one hand’s as good as the other.”

Toph stared. “You mean you can write with your left hand as well as your right?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged again, suddenly self-conscious. “It’s not that weird, right?”

“It’s pretty weird.”

“What would you know about writing, anyway?” He frowned and held up the boomerang with his left hand. Breathing through the pain, he tried to throw it in the same arc as the last time, but it fell short and he had to run forward to catch it.

“Hey, I know how to write,” Toph said.

“Ha ha.” He realized she was serious. “Wait, really?”

She nodded casually. “Ho Tun taught me a few years ago. He was convinced I’d never be able to get through life without it.”

“Toph, that’s amazing!”

She grunted and crossed her arms. “Yeah, whatever. I finally learned how to do something everyone else learned when they were babies.”

He stepped forward. “Come on, you know this is a big deal. How did he do it?”

She gave him a half-smile. “By drawing characters in the dirt, at first. But eventually he taught me how to scratch them into sheets of metal. Which is how I know it’s _way_ harder to write with my left hand.”

“That’s still really cool.”

She shrugged. “If you ask me, writing’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Talking is so much better.”

“Hey, it’s helpful for remembering stuff,” he said. “Not everyone has a memory like a steel trap.”

“A lifetime of practice.”

“Oh, yeah.” He started to laugh and make another lighthearted comment, then caught himself and wondered if that was okay. Even less than he thought about the fact that Toph was blind did he stop to consider how that shaped the way she went about _everything_. Perhaps he should think about that more… or maybe less. He never knew when it came to this stuff.

“I mean–” He cleared his throat and decided to change the subject. “Are you hungry? I’m starving.”

She hesitated and cocked her head, like she’d been jerked out of another chain of thought. “Sorry, what?”

She’d been doing that a lot– spacing out when she was talking to him and going quiet for long periods of time. It was weird, and he kept meaning to ask her about it, if he could figure out how to bring it up. But then again, hadn’t he been doing the same thing?

“I said I’m hungry,” he said eventually. “Let’s go see if the sisters have anything that isn’t vegetable root stew.”

“Oh, I’m in.” She hopped to her feet, bending her chair back into the earth. “If not maybe we could try our luck in the woods with your club.”

“Sounds like fun,” he said. “It might be nice to get out for a bit.” _But not too long,_ he thought. He wasn’t ready to leave just yet.

That night, Sokka took the blankets from his bed and tossed them over a haystack in the corner of the courtyard. The night air was warm, and the sounds of the forest trickled faintly over the roof of the abbey, mixing with the smell of perfumes sealed in barrels along the opposite wall. Everything around him was still, barely a breeze disturbing the trees and not an elephant rat in sight. But most importantly, there wasn’t a cloud in sight and the moon was full, shining so brightly he almost had to squint to look at it. Look at her.

“Hey, Yue,” he said, relaxing on the haystack with his good arm tucked behind his head. “How’s it going?”

A badger frog croaked in the distance.

“I know I haven’t… taken the time to talk to you in a while, but I still think about you all the time. Although–” he shifted a little bit, “not quite as much as I used to, if I’m completely honest. I hope you understand, there’s been a lot going on.”

He sat up straighter and shook his head. “I guess I’m just confused, and I can’t stop thinking about what Zuko said, about why I really agreed to this quest in the first place– not that I regret it! I’d never… it’s actually kind of the opposite problem.”

He laid back again, and took a deep breath, preparing himself to speak the truth aloud. “Now that we’re almost there, I kind of… don’t want it to end.

“It’s weird– Space Sword was once my favorite thing in the world, but now I hardly care if we look for it at all, if we could just keep going forever. Sometimes I think we should turn north at the Stone Fingers and take a boat to the Western Air Temple, just for the heck of it. It’s kind of funny, but I’d give up a chance to find that sword to spend a little more time together.”

A gust of warm wind blew through the courtyard.

Sokka chuckled. “Come to think of it– I already have. I guess that’s how I lost it in the first place.” He pressed his lips together, considering it. “I’d do it again, though. In a heartbeat. I’d do it again.”

He fell silent, staring up at the moon as it glowed silently back at him. Sometimes, in his pettier moments, he resented the fact that she never appeared to him and talked back. He remembered Aang saying once she appeared to him, soon after he woke up from being blasted with lightning, and told him not to give up. He’d be lying if he said it didn’t bother him _a little bit_ , but he could concede that being the Great Bridge Between the Worlds _maybe_ made Aang more important to talk to than some guy she sort-of-but-not-really dated for the few weeks before she died.

That was the strange thing about Yue, he reflected. He knew Suki for many times longer, and their relationship dynamic was dramatically different, but all these years later he could still say for sure that Yue was the first time he’d been in _love_ \- that kind of heart-pounding, can’t-stop-thinking-about-her love he heard about in stories.

Arranged marriage be damned– in his youthful naïveté, he’d allowed himself to imagine a _life_ with her. Returning to the North Pole in triumph after saving the world with Aang, giving her the betrothal necklace she deserved, at her side when she inherited the leadership of her tribe from her father. (Because she would have– no matter what those stuffy old waterbenders said. She deserved it. She would’ve made a perfect chief.) He’d become chief in the South Pole, and it would’ve been like the two tribes were united again. Admittedly, he never thought clearly about the logistics of such an arrangement, but in his mind it worked out perfectly. In his mind, they were perfect.

 _Although_ , he thought, _maybe that’s because it was all imaginary, in the end._ Real life, real love, was much messier. It was fighting separately in a war, not knowing when or if they would see each other again. It was fumbling, awkward sex in a tent hoping to the Spirits their friends couldn’t hear. It was going long distance for years after the war, then arguing over where to settle down, and how to move their relationship forward. It was falling out of love again, and wondering what the hell to do next.

 _I miss her,_ he thought, swallowing a sudden lump in his throat. _I miss Suki_. Even if they weren’t in love, she was one of his oldest and closest friends, and one of his favorite people in the world. And he missed what they had together, now that it was over and he could never get it back. Their relationship had dictated the direction in his life for so long he wasn’t sure what he would’ve done without this quest. Without Toph.

_Why did you agree to go on this trip?_

“Well…”

“Oh wow, you’re awake.”

“What the–” He jerked upright and peered into the shadows over the doorway to the dormitories. “Toph?”

She stepped forward, in a casual saunter no one else could replicate in so late at night. “You were so quiet I thought you were asleep.”

He reddened, remembering what he’d said out loud when he first settled down. “Did you… hear what I was saying earlier?”

She laughed. “You were actually talking before?” Without waiting for an invitation, she crossed the courtyard and sat on the blankets next to him. Not close enough to touch him, but it wouldn’t take too much to close the distance. “No, I was just getting up for some water when I felt you out here. Like I said, I thought you’d fallen asleep.”

He laughed nervously, careful not to accidentally shift towards her. “Nope. Just… y’know, out here talking to the moon.”

She nodded. “Does she ever talk back?”

“No,” he admitted. “But… I think she listens.”

“I see.” She leaned back on the hay. “Figuratively, of course.” Her hair, gathered in a thick, loose braid, came to rest over her shoulder.

Sokka couldn’t help but stare at it, just a little. It was so dark it looked like an inky void in the night, like if he tried to touch it his hand would go right through. Except where the moonlight caught it at the very end, and made it look like it was glowing.

“Want me to introduce you?” he said suddenly, not sure what had possessed him. He braced himself for her to laugh, call him _Meathead_ for asking if she wanted to talk to a spirit she couldn’t see.

But to his surprise, her lips quirked up in a genuine smile, and she said, “It would be an honor.”

“Al- alright.”

“Where is she?” Toph raised her hand and pointed straight up. “Just so I know where to ‘look.’”

Sokka chuckled and took her wrist, gently guiding it until she was pointing at the moon. “Right there.”

“Got it.” She let her arm drop and settled deeper onto the hay, face trained in the direction he’d shown her.

“I guess I’ll start.” He cleared his throat and leaned back, looking away from her and back at the moon, wondering how to begin. “Yue, I’d like you to meet Toph. I didn’t know her yet when I met you, but she’s my best friend, and one of the best people I know. You would’ve… I think you’ll really like her.”

Toph was silent, and he gave her a gentle nudge with his elbow. “Now you go.”

She blushed faintly and took a nervous breath. “Hi, Yue. I’ve heard a lot about you. Mostly from Meathead here–” she punched him, and he groaned dramatically, “but also from Aang and Katara and Iroh. And from what they say, you must’ve been a pretty awesome person. Even more awesome if this one–” again, a thumb in his direction “– managed to fall in love with you.”

Sokka nodded. “That’s good.”

“Should I keep going?”

“If you want.”

“I heard you also loved him,” she said softly. “So you must’ve had great taste.”

Unconsciously, Sokka felt his heart speed up and he had to take a deep breath, willing it to slow down and turn his mind away from odd, intrusive questions like _What does she mean by that?_ and _Why does it feel like it matters so much?_

If Toph felt the change, she ignored it and plowed on. “I promise… I’ll protect him. Although I don’t think I could ever top what you did.” Her lips turned down. “But I promise to do better than I have so far.”

Sokka frowned, pushing himself up on one elbow to get a better look at her face. “What do you mean?”

She looked sharply at him. “You got shot on my watch. You could’ve died.”

“It wasn’t _on your watch_.” He tried to smile. “Technically, you can’t ever _watch_ me.”

But her frown only deepened and she crossed her arms. “You’re right, I can’t. I can only see you and protect you with earthbending, and wood or water or a sword through my leg is enough to take that away.”

“Hey, hey. No.” He reached out, placing a hand gently on her arm. “Toph, don’t think that. Please don’t think like that. You’re the best protection I could ask for, definitely more than I deserve.”

She started to shake her head, but he barreled on.

“And on the _extremely rare_ occasions that you need protecting, like in the case of wood or water or swords, you know I’ll be there too, even though I’ve only got my weapons.” He paused. “We… we complement each other, Toph. That’s what makes this whole thing work.”

She was silent for a while, but her expression softened. “Alright, Meathead.”

“Good.” He relaxed. “How is your leg, anyway?” She hadn’t been limping lately, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

“It’s fine.” She waved him off. “Anyway,” she crossed her arms again, “it’s still my fault we’re in this mess.”

“How?”

“If I hadn’t gotten into that stupid fight with Firelord Sparky and made us run away at a ridiculously early hour we wouldn’t have fallen asleep in the middle of the day and we wouldn’t have been caught by surprise and you wouldn’t’ve gotten hurt.”

“Toph–” He almost laughed, but caught himself when he sensed she wouldn’t appreciate it. “You know that’s ridiculous, right? Completely insane.”

She blew her bangs out of her face. “Well, it’s _true_.”

“Still ridiculous.” He leaned back on the hay again, head pillowed on one arm. “Yue, don’t worry about a thing. There’s no one I’d trust to have my back more than Toph.” He paused for effect, then turned back to her. “She says she has complete faith in you.”

But Toph only rolled her eyes. “She shouldn’t.”

“Come on.” He reached for her shoulder but she caught his wrist.

“Sokka, Zuko was right.”

“About what?” For a second, all his insides froze before he realized she must be referring to their conversation at dinner.

“He– that’s why I got so mad. I am tired of running the academy.”

That brought him up short. “You are?”

She turned her head to him, expression unusually open. “Does that make me a terrible person? That I’m just… _done_ with something I put my heart and soul and years of my life into?”

Again, Sokka almost laughed, although this time at the irony. “You know, I’ve been asking myself that a lot lately.”

She reddened and dropped her gaze. “Shit.”

He went on, “And someone very wise once told me that everyone grows up, and sometimes you grow up in a different direction.”

She sighed, looking back up at Yue. “What if I don’t want to grow up?”

He relaxed, sinking deeper into the well of hay created by their bodies. Some part of him noticed that her head was almost close enough to touch his arm, but he ignored it and tried to focus. “Unfortunately, it seems to happen to all of us.”

“Gross.”

He laughed. “I couldn’t agree more.”

“It’s just– I love the academy, and I enjoy being there, and I like bossing around those lily-livered earthbenders, but I realized I don’t want to do that forever. And now I don’t know what to do.”

“I know the feeling.”

She huffed. “I guess so.”

“Maybe we’ll know by the end,” he said. “Maybe that’s what this quest is really about.”

She was quiet for a minute, then cocked her head and nodded. “Surprisingly deep, Meathead. And here I thought we were just looking for your fancy sword.”

Her ear brushed his arm with the movement of her head, and without thinking too hard about it he released it from behind his neck and let it fall over her shoulders, closing the distance between them and tucking her into his side.

“Well, sure,” he said. “But maybe that sword is actually a metaphor for what we really want out of life.”

She laughed, and he felt a grin split his face.

“In that case,” she murmured, “I really hope we find it.” She yawned and shifted so she was curled against his side, one arm thrown casually over his chest.

And maybe it was the hour, or their conversation, but Sokka didn’t find the contact strange at all. If anything, it seemed remarkably _right_. Her body fit against his better than he could’ve imagined, and the weight was so comforting he began to feel drowsy as well. Briefly, the thought crossed his mind that they should get up and go back to their rooms to sleep, but he dismissed it just as quickly.

 _Why bother?_ he thought. _When it’s so comfortable here?_

In the distance, something Zuko said came back to him, something about acknowledging ulterior motives, but he brushed that aside as well. Zuko was always paranoid, and besides, bringing up _that_ conversation would completely ruin the moment.

So he didn’t, and just held Toph tight against his chest as they fell asleep under the moonlight.

It’s the biggest moon Sokka’s ever seen, bright and silver and taking up almost half the sky. He’s trying to describe it to Toph, but it’s hard without talking about _colors_ or _light_.

“It looks like your eyes,” he says. “Big and silver and beautiful.”

She laughs, and the sound sends a thrill through his chest. All these years later she still laughs with her whole body, head thrown back and shoulders shaking. It’s the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard.

She presses closer against him and leans close to his ear. “You idiot. I don’t know what my eyes look like, either.”

He laughs, too. They’re somewhere high up on a hill and he feels giddy, dizzy from the altitude or the feeling of euphoria rushing through his veins. “I guess I only know what beautiful _looks_ like. What does beautiful _feel_ like, Toph?”

She’s leaning in close again, so close he can feel her heart beating right up against his, smell the earth in her hair, the smoothness of her skin, and it feels incredibly natural, incredibly _right_.

“Mountains are beautiful,” she says. “And canyons are beautiful. The warmth of the sun on my face is beautiful. You feel beautiful, to me.”

He laughs through the way that makes his heart speed up, and brings his other arm around her. “You feel beautiful, too,” he says, and he means it. He doesn’t have to look at her to know (although he likes to).

“More beautiful than I look?” she says.

“No,” he says. “The same beautiful.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Her face is so close he can feel the heat of her breath.

“You’re right,” he says, and closes his eyes. “It doesn’t.”

When she kisses him (or he kisses her), it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever felt. Her lips are softer than he thought they would be, and she smells like the earth just after it rains.

They lean backwards, or maybe the whole earth is tilting under them, and Sokka feels a little like he’s falling.

 _But it’s okay_ , he thinks. _Falling like this isn’t so bad_.

Somewhere in the distance, Toph laughs. _You’re not really falling._ Her voice echoes right into his head. _It’s a metaphor, Snoozles_.

 _For what?_ he tries to say. _A metaphor for what?_

Sokka woke up with a gasp, and threw out a hand to stop himself from from sliding further off the haystack. Toph was still curled against his side, and he laid still for a bewildering minute, trying to separate reality from the dream.

 _What does it mean_? _Do I really want to_ –? Fuck, of course he did. Why bother lying to himself? He let that realization sink in for a while before resolving to do absolutely nothing about it. It wouldn’t be fair to Toph, he decided. She’d think he was just rebounding from Suki. Besides, who knew if she felt the same way? Sure, he was vaguely aware of her little crush on him when they were kids but that was a long time ago. It didn’t seem possible that she would still…

 _No_. He brought up a hand to rub his face, and became aware of the throbbing in his back and shoulder. It was too late to be contemplating this, and he was too tired. Slowly, he began disentangling himself from Toph, and ignored the way his lips twitched up at the sleepy mumbles she made as she woke up.

“Hey,” he said, pulling her to her feet. “We should probably go sleep in real beds at some point.”

“Oh, yeah.” She stretched and yawned, straightening her clothes before ambling back towards the dormitories. “What time ’s it?”

“No idea,” he said. “The sun isn’t up, although it probably will be soon.”

“Mm. Sounds like a good day to sleep in,” she said.

“That’s every day.”

She chuckled, then turned away in the direction of her room. “G’night, Snoozles. Thanks for the introduction.”

“You’re welcome.” He smiled and watched her for just a _bit_ longer than necessary before retreating into his own room. He drank one of the cordials the healers had left him for the pain and laid down on his cot to sleep. It was much more comfortable than the hay, but without Toph tucked under his arm, he couldn’t help but think it felt a little empty.

* * *

“Come on, I won’t improve unless I work on it!” Sokka said, tossing his club from one hand to the other.

“You know, it’s called over-training,” Toph said, chewing on an apple. “Ask your gimp leg.”

“I don’t have a–” He shook his head. _Focus, Sokka_. “Look, are you really turning down an opportunity to kick my ass?”

She shrugged. “I hate to break it to you, but kicking your ass isn’t exactly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“What sort of standard is that? Is anyone really a challenge for you these days?”

Another shrug. “King Bumi, maybe. Did I tell you I trained with him for a bit a few years back? By the end he could almost take me.”

Sokka narrowed his eyes, not sure whether or not she was kidding. Either way, she was definitely trying to distract him. “I could take you in a fight if you let me use my boomerang.”

She glared and tossed the apple core aside. “Hey, it’s not fair to use a ranged weapon in melee combat.”

“Sure, sure.” He grinned.

“Besides, I’m not afraid to fight your boomerang.”

“You sure about that?” He pulled it out of its sheath and tossed it up and down a few times. “There’s no way to tell where it is in the air.”

“Doesn’t matter,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Well, alright then.” He drew back his arm, spotting a course just over her head. But as he released it, the stones jerked under his feet, throwing him off balance. The throw went wide, and Sokka yelled out a warning just in time for everyone in the courtyard to duck and cover as the boomerang sailed over them in a smooth, head-level arc before smashing clean through three ceramic pots of perfume.

“Hey, watch it!” Toph screamed from her position crouching behind an earth shield.

“You watch it!” he yelled back, picking himself up off the ground and sloshing through the spilled perfume for his boomerang. “I wasn’t going to _actually_ throw it at you!”

“Well how was I supposed to know that?”

“Did you really think I _would_?” He picked it up and groaned. It was going to smell like orange-lavender-rosewater for _weeks_. He sheathed it and turned around, then stumbled backwards. “Oh hey there, Mother Superior.”

She was several inches shorter than him, but her expression was enough to make his palms sweat. He knew what was coming before she said it and his heart sank.

“Perhaps it’s time you two moved on.”

“I’m sorry about the perfumes again,” Sokka muttered as Kita re-dressed his shoulder one last time before they left. He must’ve apologized twice to everyone at the abbey since the incident, but he was still getting dirty looks when he walked down the halls.

“Oh, you don’t have to apologize to me,” Kita said. “I saw the whole thing, I know it was an accident.” She laughed. “You two remind me of me and Narruk.”

“Who’s Narruk?”

“My husband.” She turned away to unspool a roll of fresh bandages as Sokka tried desperately to suppress the blood rushing to his face. “He died during the Siege of the North,” she went on, “but we were a lot like you two back in the day.” She sighed, a sad little smile on her face. “Young and in love.”

Sokka immediately gave up on not blushing and focused on suppressing nervous laughter. “Oh, Toph and I aren’t–”

“I know, I know, _it’s complicated_ ,” Kita said in a way that made Sokka genuinely wonder if she was Katara in disguise. “But I was there when you were first brought in. She refused to leave even for a second while we worked on removing the arrow, then told us every other minute how fast your heart was beating.”

He looked at her in disbelief, although when he really thought about it that sounded just like Toph.

“And when we finally got you stable, she insisted we take care of her leg in the same room, just so she wouldn’t have to leave your side.”

“…I didn’t know that.” Sokka licked his lips, not sure what to say, and suddenly doubting his resolution from the other night. Was it possible that she–

“There you go.” Kita finished wrapping his shoulder and stood up, holding out his tunic and shirt. “That should hold for a few days’ travel.”

“Right,” he said faintly, pulling his shirt over his head. “Thank you very much for all your help.”

“Of course.” Kita departed with her water and healing supplies, but Sokka barely noticed.

He looked out the window to the mountains in the west with a strange heaviness in his heart. A few days’ travel, and they’d be at the Wulong Forest, and their quest would finally be over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man I love a good chat with Yue…… :)


	7. Not Really an End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooo I'm not dead!! Sorry for making you guys wait, there's been a lot going on… 
> 
> I'll try not to go on too long but I do want to say this story has been in the back of my brain since my first re-watch of Avatar back in 2017, so to finally finish it and have it all out there is bittersweet. Writing it has been such an amazing experience– it turned out so much bigger than I thought, both in terms of length and readership, I can't thank you guys enough for your all your love and support in the comments, bookmarks, subscriptions, and kudos

They set off from the abbey that day, walking at a significantly slower pace. Sokka suspected Toph was trying to protect his injury, but thanks to Kita and the other healers he barely felt it, and they could’ve been going faster. But he found himself reluctant to say anything about it. He was increasingly aware that each mile brought them closer to the end of their journey, and back into that unknown where they’d started.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it), he was also increasingly aware of _Toph_. Everything about her seemed distracting now, from her hair to her clothes to the quick smiles she’d give him when he made a stupid joke. He even found himself watching her as they set up camp, and all the small ways she used earthbending to go about her life.

She turned over the earth to clear the grass for a fire, and then again to put it out. Instead of bending down to reach something, she almost always tapped her heel into the ground and it flew up to her hand, propelled by a spike of earth that was gone as soon as it appeared. Unless whatever she needed was metal, in which case it would fly into her hand as she held it out. She had a shocking amount of control over metal, and he noticed embarrassingly late that instead of being bound together with string, her pack was held together with metal cables that sprung open with a flick of her hand and coiled themselves neatly to the side. Then in the morning they’d wrap around her bags just as quickly, and never come loose as they walked during the day.

“It’s like when you were fighting that girl at the factory in Cranefish Town,” he said one evening when he thought she’d caught him staring (although it was hard to tell– maybe she caught him every night). “Or I guess it’s Republic City now. You said the metal cables could be useful.” He thought back. “What was her name again?”

“Yaling,” Toph said, chewing thoughtfully on a roll. “Bender-supremacist. Thought she was even better than me.”

“No one’s better than you,” he said without thinking, then tried to cover up the sappy comment with a smirk. “Although I do seem to remember her knocking you over at one point.”

“Yeah well, she was no match for your boomerang.” She smiled back, and Sokka wished suddenly that they weren’t sitting so far away, because he would’ve liked to give her arm a friendly nudge, or maybe her shoulders a squeeze, or maybe (and wasn’t it strange to be wishing for this) she’d just punch his arm, Toph-speak for the same sentiment.

But he didn’t move, just sat still with his eyes on the fire, watching her expression in his peripheral vision.

She was still as well, although she wasn’t looking at the fire, her gaze instead trained on the line of trees to the north that marked the edge of the forest.

Of course, that didn’t give him one hint as to where her focus _actually_ was. He could only hope it wasn’t on him, or at least not on his heartbeat.

One night, they stayed in a cave, which was cramped until Toph made it wider and more spacious, molding the ceiling in the exact right geometry to guide smoke from their fire out of the mouth.

After they ate, she lounged against a rock bent at the perfect angle for her back and tossed a stone so it bounced off the floor and the walls and back to her hand in a steady rhythm– _tap-tap, tap-tap, tap-tap_.

“How do you do that?” he said, the knife he’d been sharpening forgotten in his lap.

“Do what?” She changed the angle of her throw, so the stone bounced off the floor, the wall, and then the ceiling before falling back into her hand.

He thought about it, wondering what he was _really_ asking. “Know where the rock is in the air.”

She cocked her head, considering this, and threw the stone again, so it bounced off the walls in yet another pattern. “Practice, I guess. During Earth Rumble matches, I got pretty good at knowing where a rock was going to be based on how it was thrown, or the other earthbender’s stance.”

“That’s amazing.”

She shrugged. “But over time, and especially now that I’ve got this metalbending thing figured out, I can sense earth even if it’s in the air. I don’t need vibrations to tell how big it is, or where it is in space, or how fast it’s moving.”

“That’s incredible,” he said again, thinking about all the mental physics that involved, and how in another lifetime, Toph would’ve made a gifted engineer.

“I suppose.” Another shrug. “It’s just normal to me now.”

They fell quiet again, although Sokka felt the now-familiar urge to continue complimenting her. He suppressed it, because at this point it would be weird, probably, but Toph didn’t try to fill the silence either. She’d been doing that a lot– they both had.

For his part, Sokka was brooding about the true nature of their quest and his dream at the abbey, and his conversations with Zuko and Kita. He was pretty sure he was alone in those thoughts, but suspected they shared a third reason for long, thoughtful silences. The coast had begun to turn south, and they both knew that soon they’d reach the stone fingers.

Besides the looming idea that it meant the end of their journey, Sokka was nervous about returning to the site of what was simultaneously the best and worst night of his entire life. Best, of course, because they’d won. Worst, because of… everything else.

Toph was still awake when he fell asleep uneasily that night, facing the mouth of the cave. He could faintly see the black line of the ocean in the night, barely distinguishable from the sky. But when he opened his eyes again the sky was red, like it was the day of the comet, and the forest below him was burning. He was standing at the mouth of the cave, frozen looking down at the inferno. And he knew he was dreaming, that it was just a nightmare, but his heart was pounding in his throat and he could feel the heat of the flames on his face. It all felt so _real_ –

He jerked awake to the ground tilting under him, rolling him gently away from the fire that still burned between him and Toph, sitting cross-legged on the other side.

“You okay?” she said. “You rolled kind of close to the fire, and your heart was going crazy.”

“Yeah.” He took a shaky breath and ran a hand over his face. “Just a dream.”

“Mm.” Her face remained impassive, impossible to read.

He wanted to say so many things– like what it meant when she curled around him that night under the moon, and if, like Zuko said, she had any _ulterior motives_ when she proposed they go on this quest. He wanted to ask her how she felt about returning to the scene of the proverbial crime, and if she was having nightmares too, but his mind felt sluggish, and he couldn’t find the words.

So he turned over and tried to sleep again, hoping he wouldn’t dream.

Toph looked tired the next morning, but she packed up her bags at the same time as always and they kept walking at their slower-than-usual pace. Still, by mid-morning the trail they were following rounded the base of the mountain and he saw them.

The Stone Fingers, rising like crooked soldiers over what was left of the Wulong Forest. Toph must’ve felt them before they came into view, but she still stopped when he did, waiting while he took it in.

“You know,” she said, “they say Oma herself created these when Shu was killed and she revealed herself as an earthbender.”

His lips twitched. “Wasn’t that supposed to happen near Omashu?”

“It’s a legend, Meathead.”

“But I thought it was a _real_ legend,” he said with a grin.

She punched him for that, and he laughed. The short rush of happiness gave him the courage to keep going, putting one foot in front of the other until the pillars were towering over them. Toph kept her head down, of course, but Sokka couldn’t help looking up, scanning for signs of Aang’s battle with Ozai. He hadn’t seen it, so he didn’t really know what he was looking for, but every so often he thought he saw evidence of earthbending, or faint scorch marks too high and too concentrated to be natural.

By mutual, unspoken agreement they walked through the stone forest without stopping, not even to eat, and picked up the pace until they were walking so fast they couldn’t speak even if they wanted to.

It was dark by the time they reached the trees again on the western side of the Stone Fingers. The airships hadn’t made it quite this far, but Sokka knew that soon they’d reach the airship graveyard, giant metal hulls rusting among blackened stumps on an ashy plain. His limbs shook with exhaustion as he pitched his tent next to Toph’s, then sat heavily just outside of it, picking at nuts from his bag. Neither of them moved to build a fire, for which Sokka was grateful. Eventually, he ran out of reasons to stay up any later, so he crawled inside his tent and curled up on his bedroll.

He’d hoped the hard day of walking would send him to sleep quickly, but even as he laid there exhausted his eyes stayed stubbornly open, staring at the patched blue fabric of his tent. Distantly, he could hear the waves crashing on the shore, and he found himself breathing in time with them, trying to push away images of charred tree trunks, and the fire that consumed them.

_In, and out. In, and out._

He’s panting, hyperventilating, but he can’t stop to catch his breath. He’s running along the top of an airship– he can feel the slight give beneath his feet– except it must be longer than he thought it was because he still can’t see the end. The sky is glowing red above him and the air is hot, but in one hand he’s got Space Sword and in the other he’s got Toph. Or more accurately, her hand. He can’t see her, since she’s running slightly behind him, but he knows she’s there by the way her fingers wrap around his. And he’s got to lead her, since she’s blind up here, on the fabric balloon of the airship, he’s got to keep her safe. And once they reach the end, he knows, he _knows_ , they will be. They just have to keep going. So he’s running, even though his legs are weak and it feels like they’re slowing, or the distance before them is increasing.

Then the air around them grows even hotter, and Sokka notices with horror that the airship is burning, flames eating away at the surface and throwing cinders in his face. Beyond them, he can tell, is nothingness. A smoky abyss and certain death. He pushes himself faster, and tries to change their course, but he stumbles and his stomach drops because they’re about to fall off the side. Toph’s grip on his hand tightens and he feels her fingers start to slip.

“Sokka,” her voice drifts faintly from behind him. “Sokka, please.”

 _No_ , is all he can think. _Not this time_.

He holds on tighter and keeps going, staggering as the curve of the airship affects his stride, his sword limp and dragging at his side. No matter how hard he tries, Toph’s hand keeps slipping, the heat making their palms slick.

“Sokka!”

The pull on his arm becomes insistent, and the thought of losing her is unbearable, so he drops his sword, barely watching as it falls into the flames beneath them, and turns around so he can hold her with both hands.

But she isn’t there, and his hands are empty.

“Toph!” he tries to yell, but he’s choking, and his voice is weak. “Toph.” Smoke clouds his vision as he searches desperately below him, although it’s clearly hopeless. His feet are slipping on the airship, and he knows he’s falling, too.

 _I’m sorry, Toph._ He closes his eyes against the heat, heart pounding as the floor begins to fall away. _I’m so sorry_.

Sokka jerked awake and sat bolt upright. He was covered in a cold sweat, breath coming in ragged gasps. For a long minute he was frozen, gripped with terror by the nightmare and his heart beating out of his chest. When he finally moved, it was to press shaking hands to his face and feel them come away wet.

 _Shit. Shit, shit shit._ He could swear the walls of his tent were closing in, so he kicked himself free of his bedroll and scrambled clumsily outside, drawing in a shaky breath and shivering as the breeze cooled the moisture on his neck. Both palms pressed into the earth, he closed his eyes and tried to calm himself.

 _It was a dream_ , he thought, over and over. _Just a dream_.

He glanced over his shoulder at the earth tent. The ends were closed with solid earth walls, which bothered him a little since they’d literally cuddled together back at the abbey, but to be fair, that was an exception. Toph usually liked her space.

He shifted and sat with his knees curled into his chest, and took another deep breath to the sound of the waves. When he closed his eyes to listen more closely, he realized the night was otherwise silent, the forest too thin to support any insects or birds.

 _Like it’s dead_ , he thought, shuddering. _A dead forest_.

The only signs of life were the sounds of his breathing and Toph moving inside her earth tent. Selfishly, he wished she was awake as well, so he wouldn’t have to bear the sleeplessness alone. She was the only person in the world who could truly understand what this place did to him, and he felt so lonely, even though she was only a few feet away.

Almost as soon as he thought it, the sounds from the earth tent grew louder, more… frantic. Like she was tossing and turning in her sleep. He crawled closer and rapped gently on the walls.

“Toph?”

No answer, although the shifting grew louder

“Hey, Toph?”

Still no answer, and he thought he heard something else. Almost like… whimpering. Although he’d never heard Toph _whimper_ in his life.

 _She must be having a nightmare_. He knocked again, harder. “Toph, wake up. It’s me, Sokka.”

More whimpering.

“ _Toph_.” He was starting to feel stupid, whispering to a stone wall, but then everything went silent, and it was so quiet he could hear his heart thundering in his ears. Then suddenly the door of the earth tent opened and he almost fell in.

“What do you want, Snoozles?” She glared up at him, and it was hard to see her face in the dark, but her voice was oddly soft and he could hear a barely-detectable waver.

“Nothing, I–” He licked his lips, his throat suddenly tight again. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine.”

“Okay.” But he didn’t move, frozen leaning over her with one hand on the roof of her tent.

He’d barely shifted his weight to move away when she caught his wrist with her hand. “Wait.”

He stopped.

Her grip softened, but she didn’t let go, pulling him gently toward her. “You can stay.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. Awkwardly, because her head was facing toward him and he had to crawl to get into the tent, he shuffled inside and laid down next to her. He pulled her into his arms before she could ask and held her close, squeezing her ribs so tightly she gasped.

“Miss me, Snoozles?” she murmured into his ear.

“Yes,” he said honestly. “This place…”

“I know,” she said, because of course she understood, before he even tried to explain. “I know.”

She fell asleep like that, curled up against him and holding on tight, and for the first time since leaving the abbey, Sokka felt something close to peaceful. Although before he fell asleep as well, he made sure to take her hand in his, so if he dreamed again he wouldn’t let go.

* * *

When Sokka woke up again, at first he couldn’t tell whether his eyes were open. Toph had sealed the ends of the earth tent and it was pitch dark. He took a deep breath and shifted onto his back. As his eyes adjusted, he thought he could see a thin sliver of light where two slabs of earth didn’t quite meet, so the sun must be up. He supposed under normal circumstances he’d find the tent to be claustrophobic and uncomfortably warm, but this time he didn’t feel inclined to move. Besides the fact that he physically couldn’t remove the rock walls himself, Toph was still asleep, her cheek gently resting on his shoulder.

Unlike the night spent on the hay bale, he took a moment to notice how soft her skin felt on his, and the way her hair fell in gentle waves down her back. Unconsciously, he bent his arm so he could run his hands through it. Even in the darkness, he closed his eyes to better appreciate the sensation. The strands were smooth and cool between his fingers and if it weren’t for the earthy smell around him, he could imagine he was lying by a stream.

He never knew how long he laid like that. In the darkness and the silence, the moment seemed suspended in time, entirely separate from the rest of the world pushing him relentlessly into the future. He only knew the spell was broken when his fingertip brushed her earlobe and she finally stirred.

And maybe it was the darkness, or maybe the reluctance to let go of a dream, but he didn’t freeze and jerk his arm away, just continued stroking her hair as her breathing changed and she tilted her head towards his.

“Snoozles,” she murmured in a sleepy tone that almost made him want to turn the nickname back on her, “are you petting me?”

“Maybe,” he whispered, then felt her hand creep up to rest over his pounding heart. His cheeks flushed, but his hand didn’t stop moving. “Yes.”

She shifted so her face was closer to his, and for the thousandth time on this trip he wondered if he was going to kiss her. The thought made him freeze, his hand coming to rest near her waist, and hold his breath, lips slightly parted.

But she didn’t close the gap, even though he could swear he felt her breath on his face.

“We’ll reach the airships today,” she said.

“I know.”

“So we’ll find out, one way or another, if this was all worth it.”

“It was worth it,” he said immediately. “No matter what happens, it was worth it.”

She tapped her fingers thoughtfully on his chest. “Your heart’s going nuts in there.”

He swallowed, trying to keep his head. “Well, uh… it’s pretty warm.”

It was the wrong thing to say.

Toph seemed to remember where they were and with a sweep of her arm deconstructed the earth tent around them.

Sokka flinched away from the sunlight but didn’t sit up, holding a hand over his face as reality sank back in.

Toph brought up her pack from where she’d folded it beneath the earth and checked the metal cables. “We’d better get moving.”

He sighed and picked himself up, staring wearily at his tent like it would break itself down. “Toph?”

“What is it?” She already had her pack on her shoulders, while his stuff was still hopelessly strewn about their campsite.

“Are you scared?”

For a second, he thought she was going to toss her head and scoff, but at the last second she seemed to change her mind. “Of course I’m scared. So are you.”

“I know.” He hesitated. “I thought saying it out loud might make me feel better.”

She was quiet for so long he wondered if she’d heard him. “Well, do you?”

He blinked. “Do I what?”

“Feel better.”

“…I don’t know.”

Now she scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Great talk, Snoozles. Let’s go.”

He shook his head and began breaking down his tent. “I don’t know why I try.”

She glared and crossed her arms. “What do you want from me? Of course I understand what you’re feeling, but we didn’t come this far to pig-chicken out.”

He snorted and shook his head again. Finished rolling up his tent, he sat back on his heels, the ropes for his pack hanging limp in his hands. He felt restless, unfocused. His thoughts scattered and confused between his nightmare and waking up in the earth tent that morning. “I thought I’d be… stronger,” he said. “When I finally came back here. I didn’t think I’d let it get to me.”

He heard her shrug off her pack the rustling of her clothes as she sat down beside it. He turned to face her, and waited while she stared at the ground between her knees, picking at a loose thread in her tunic.

“I… I dreamed about falling,” she finally said.

His breath caught and he swallowed it down, closing his eyes against the images of running along the airship surface, her hand slippery in his.

“I mean, I dream about falling a lot,” she continued. “That and… being trapped. In a wooden cell, or in a cage but I can’t metalbend.” She licked her lips. “But mostly it’s falling.”

He opened his mouth to respond– with an apology, maybe. Or maybe to tell her that he dreamed about her falling, as well, but she held up a hand to stop him.

“And before you say anything– yeah, I have talked to someone about this before. Aang a little bit, and Uncle last time I was in Ba Sing Se.” She hugged her knees into her chest, suddenly appearing so much smaller than he was used to seeing her. “And I guess the thing is– maybe we shouldn’t fight it so much.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, maybe it’s okay that we’re scared. It was a terrifying experience, what we went through. But–” she reached out suddenly and took his hand, “we made it, and we’re still here, and I… I wouldn’t do this with anyone but you.”

His heart thudded in his chest, and he had to close his eyes as he squeezed her hand back. He wished he could find the right words to agree with her, say he felt exactly the same way, but none came, and his throat felt too tight to speak anyway.

Luckily, she seemed to understand.

When they finally continued, it was in silence again– but not, Sokka thought, an unpleasant one. They walked closer than usual, like they had in Republic City, although this time when their hands brushed it didn’t feel so accidental. In any case, it certainly wasn’t accidental the way their fingers hooked and interwove as they crested the last hill before the airship graveyard.

And maybe it was the bright light of day, or Toph’s hand securely in his, but as he looked down on the blasted forest, Sokka felt surprisingly steady. He looked over at Toph to see if she felt the same, and she must’ve felt him turn his head because she just smiled and squeezed his hand one more time, before they started down the slope together.

They left their packs on a small outcropping of rock so close to the water he could feel the sea spray if the wind blew just right. After turning to face the airships again, Sokka looked at Toph and said, “So how do you want to do this?”

She smiled a wide, pointy-toothed grin. “I’d take a step back if I were you.”

He couldn’t help but smile back, but did as she said.

Cracking her knuckles in front of her, she inhaled long and slow, then on the exhale raised her right leg and brought it down hard, her arms coming into her chest.

The ground rippled beneath them and Sokka staggered to keep his balance, but Toph’s feet never moved, wiggling her toes into the earth as the vibrations came back to her.

Sokka held his breath, heart racing. “Feel anything interesting?”

With another slow inhale, Toph came out of her stance. “Oh, plenty.” She threw him a wry look over her shoulder. “But not _that_ kind of interesting. Patience, cave-hopper.”

Then she started towards the ships, weaving in and out of the battered, rusty shells, pausing every few meters to stomp her foot again. Sokka followed out of a sort of instinct, although he felt woefully inadequate scanning the landscape with his eyes, lifting away the occasional piece of metal and scaring away spider-snakes that had made their home inside. Toph occasionally did the same, using metalbending, but never said anything after.

They worked in near-silence for the rest of the morning, before returning to their packs for a short rest and something to eat, and then beginning again. Sokka’s clothes were soon soaked in sweat, his gloves and forearm bindings streaked with rust.

To his mild surprise (but not-so-mild relief), they didn’t find too many bodies during their search. The solid metal hulls, for the most part, appeared to have fallen to the ground in one piece, without buckling and crushing everyone inside. He found plenty of armor, abandoned as soon as the soldiers realized they were on the losing side, but the vast majority of it was empty. Only an unlucky few appeared to have taken a bad hit to one vital organ or another, or were caught in an unfortunate spot during the crash and pinned.

Whenever he found one of these, Sokka would call Toph over and with a stomp of her foot she buried them, sending them back into the earth with a grim nod and hardly a disturbance to the surrounding area. Sokka supposed a proper Fire Nation burial would’ve involved a cremation, but they hardly had the resources for that now, so he always lingered at the unmarked, impromptu graves and said a quick prayer to Yue and La, and then to Agni, although the name sounded unfamiliar in his mouth.

As the heat of the day began to wane Sokka’s eyes started to glaze over, he wondered if he’d been wrong in assuming Toph would be able to say whether the sword was here or not within the first day. He had no idea how much ground they’d actually covered, as Toph seemed to be moving in a circuitous, non-sensical pattern through the airships, but he felt like they’d barely made a dent in it, and in his exhaustion began to despair of ever doing so.

Until the impossible happened.

“Sokka!” There was a cacophony of tearing metal as Toph attacked the hull of an airship near the waterline. “Sokka, look!”

He ran over, tripping and stumbling and swallowing the pain in his shoulder. He wanted to simultaneously sink to his knees and jump for joy when she held it up, the hilt mangled and rusty but the blade still recognizable.

“I can’t believe it,” he whispered. “I can’t believe it.” His legs were shaking but he held onto a jagged bit of metal and reached out to take it from her. _Space Sword_.

“Wait.” She knelt down and placed it on her knees, then began running her hands over it, eyes closed in concentration.

He leaned over and realized she was repairing it. With each gentle sweep of her hand over the blade and the hilt, the scratches and dents were smoothed away, and the metal started to regain some of its shine. His lips parted in awe– he’d never thought metalbending could be so… gentle. He never realized _she_ could be so gentle.

When she handed it back to him, his heart swelled as he took the familiar weight in his hand.

“It’s lighter than I remember,” he whispered.

“Maybe you’re just stronger.”

With shaking hands he pulled her to her feet and brought her into a tight embrace. “Thank you, Toph,” he whispered. “Thank you for everything.”

“No problem, Snoozles,” she said gruffly into his shoulder, although her arms came around to return it.

His cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling into her hair– it felt so perfect, so _right_ , to hold her like this, in that moment he didn’t think he’d ever want to let go. Eager to see her face, he pulled back and looked down, and realized she was looking back up at him. For what had to be the millionth time on this trip he thought, _has she always been this beautiful?_ Then, _I really want to kiss her_.

So he did.

They inhaled at the same time and she melted in his arms. For a moment he had a brief, terrifying thought that he’d made a horrible mistake and was about to be buried ten feet under the earth, but then he felt her arms tighten like a vice against his waist, her tongue brushing the gently against his lower lip, and his mind whited out completely so there was nothing but the feeling of her mouth on his and her hands climbing up his back.

Sokka could’ve stayed like that for a long time, but then a loud _clang_ brought them back to earth and they broke apart, gasping. In the heat of the moment, he’d dropped Space Sword and the hilt had fallen against the hull of the ruined airship.

He cursed at the thought that he’d dented it again, but Toph just laughed and picked it up, smoothing out the metal with a brush of her fingers.

She tried to hand it back to him, cheeks still flushed and lips red, but he just ducked his head to kiss her again, wondering why on earth he’d waited so long to do this.

“Toph…” he whispered, holding her face in his hands. “ _Toph_.”

“Sokka,” she said, and he had to bite his lip against how _stupidly_ good it felt when she said his name.

“We did it,” he said, thumbs gliding gently over her cheekbones. “I can’t believe we did it.”

“You mean _I_ did it,” she said, with a trademark smug little smile he had to kiss off her lips.

“Yes,” he said. “You did it.”

She smiled again, her face lifted towards his and filmy eyes staring slightly past his. “So,” she said softly. “What now?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, melancholy beginning to curl deep in his stomach. Then he shivered as she reached up and brushed a hand over the crease forming between his brows, then down over the faint shadow of stubble he’d allowed to grow over the last couple of days.

“Me neither.”

Slowly, almost lazily, they made their way back to where they’d left their bags. The whole time, Sokka kept his Space Sword in one hand and Toph’s hand in the other, until they returned to the outcropping of rock looking over the water. He paused, turning his face into the breeze coming from the west.

“The sun is setting,” he said, drinking in the gentle orange color of the waves.

“Mm.” Toph turned her head as well, loose strands of hair whipping around her face and nose twitching in the salty air. Before he could ask, she bent a sort of chair for them– really just a short outcropping of rock, but when they sat down in front of it molded itself perfectly to their backs and allowed her to tuck herself snugly against his side.

“What does it look like?” she said after a while, head resting on his shoulder.

Sokka was reminded of the dream he had in the abbey, when she asked him to describe the moon, and tried to think of a way to say it without using colors or light.

“It looks like… a slow fade of warmth to cool,” he said. “It looks like an ending.” He tilted his head. “Although I suppose it could also be a beginning.”

She chuckled and smacked his chest. “I didn’t think you’d get all poetic on me.”

“What can I say?” His head dipped to kiss her forehead. “I’m in a poetic sort of mood.”

“Really?” Her lips twitched against his skin. “I bet you don’t know any poetry.”

“No,” he admitted. “Probably more Aang’s area. Or Zuko’s. Did you know _Love Amongst the Dragons_ was written in iambic pentameter?”

She laughed. “What a nerd.”

He laughed, too, although it faded quickly as he remembered their night in Republic City. He wondered if Toph was thinking the same thing.

“Hey Sokka?” she said when the sun was barely a speck over the waves.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think I’d make a good Chief of Police?”

He grinned. “I think it would be hilarious, you going around arresting little earthbending con artists doing the same shit you pulled when you were twelve.”

“You mean the shit _we_ pulled,” she said.

“Nope.” He pulled her closer. “I may’ve been there, but I was an innocent bystander. That was _all_ you, you Runaway.”

“Hey, you were definitely an accomplice.”

“If I was, so was Aang,” he said. He cocked his head. “Now that I think about it, I don’t think it’s fair that we were left off that wanted poster. We could’ve been plural– the Runaways.”

Toph nodded, her face strangely serious. “It would’ve been fitting.”

Sokka licked his lips, staring hard at the last streaks of light on the horizon. “It still is.”

She sighed and pressed her face harder into his chest, and he didn’t have to look to see the sadness in her eyes.

“Yes,” he said, his voice low and sincere. “I think you’d make an amazing Chief of Police.”

“Why?” Her voice was small.

“Because you’re amazing at whatever you do,” he said.

She scoffed.

“And because I know how much you care about people,” he pressed on. “And about protecting those who need it. Because you have a strong sense of justice, and of what’s right.”

She didn’t deny it, but she also didn’t agree, just sat perfectly still against his side, breathing in time with the waves.

He took a deep breath. “Because you know what it’s like to be in a cage– whether gilded, or metal, or wood– and you’ll think four times before doing that to anyone who doesn’t deserve it.”

She gave another quiet sigh. “It just feels so… final, you know? Like it’ll be the end of something.”

Sokka nodded, a lump forming in his throat as he thought of the Republic City Council position. It would be nice to live so near Aang and Katara, who he’d missed terribly while he was living on Kyoshi. And Zuko was right– he probably could do a lot of good, representing the Southern Water Tribe and non-benders. Using his notoriety to help build something that would last, a new system that would serve people the way a government should. But it did feel like an ending– the end of a certain kind of freedom, the end of an era in his life.

“Maybe…” he faltered as the last bit of sunlight disappeared and the brightest stars began winking over their heads. “Maybe it’s like the sunset, and it could be a beginning if we looked at it a different way.”

“No,” Toph gave a watery chuckle, drops of moisture brushing from her eyelashes onto his shirt. “That’s too easy, Snoozles. Think of a different metaphor.”

“Okay.” He tried to laugh as well, and tightened his grip on her hand. “You know someone once told me not to let the destination get in the way of the journey.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that one before,” she said. “One of my favorites, actually.”

“Really?”

“Really.” She gently nudged his ribs. “But I still don’t know where you’re going with this.”

“Well, I didn’t really get it at the time,” Sokka glanced at Space Sword lying on the ground to his left, barely a shadow in the dim light, “but after this– quest, I think I finally understand.”

“Well that makes one of us.”

He cleared his throat, trying to organize his thoughts into something resembling a point. “I mean, these last couple of days I’ve kind of been dreading reaching the end,” he said. “Not just because of, you know, the obvious but also because it was the _end_. And I guess that made me realize… how valuable the journey really was.”

Spirits, he still wasn’t making that much sense, but this time Toph was patient, and waited in silence.

“I guess what I’m saying is– maybe it could all be a journey, you know?”

She frowned, a faint line between her eyebrows visible in the dark.

“Like, maybe this isn’t really an ending. Maybe Republic City, and ‘settling down,’ is just the next part of the quest.”

“Mm,” Toph said after a long few minutes. “I guess I could get behind that.” She shifted against him and stretched out her legs. “Pretty deep stuff, Boomerang Guy. You could almost be Uncle Iroh.”

“You never know,” he said. “Maybe in fifty years I’ll have my own tea shop, too.”

“No you won’t,” Toph said. “You make a horrible cup of tea.”

He laughed, then leaned down to kiss her because he realized it had been too long.

They didn’t speak for a long time after that. Toph earthbent their makeshift chair away and made the ground softer beneath them so they could just lie under the stars, lazily making out in between munching on berries and hippo-beef jerky from their packs.

Sokka didn’t know what prompted him to break the very pleasurable silence in the end– but once the question occurred to him, he couldn’t not ask it. “Toph?”

“Yeah?” At some point she’d discarded her tunic, and was stretched out on the softened earth beside him in only her bindings. Her pale skin seemed glow in the moonlight, and Sokka had to curl his fingers into a fist to keep from running his hand over it again and distracting them both.

“Do you think we’re in love?”

To her credit, she barely reacted. “I don’t know.”

“Do you think we could be in love, in the future?”

“I don’t know,” she said again, although her tone wasn’t defensive, just thoughtful. “What if you break my heart?”

“What if you break mine?” he countered.

“Ha ha.” She rolled her eyes and didn’t bother to explain why she thought that was unlikely.

“Hey, don’t laugh. It could happen,” Sokka said, his heart thudding against his ribs, feeling open and exposed.

Toph smiled and shook her head. “You’re not in love with me, Snoozles.”

“Maybe not.” _But I could be_. _I definitely feel… something. Or the beginning of something_. “Are you in love with me?”

“I don’t know.” She raised her arms above her head in a slow, languid stretch. “I don’t think I really know what love is.” She paused. “It’s weird. Ten years ago, I thought I knew everything. But now I just wonder if I know anything at all.”

“Me, too,” he said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I never know what I’m doing. No idea.” He looked up at the stars, all of them visible now, and remembered the meteor shower they’d watched the night before he met Piandao, and how small he’d felt, how insignificant.

“Too bad we kinda have to know, at this point,” she said.

“Nah, we don’t _really_ have to know,” he said. “People just expect us too.”

She licked her lips. “Is it bad that I sometimes wish for the old days again? Not the war, just–”

“The freedom?”

“Yeah.” She smiled. “The freedom of being a kid and doing dumb shit just for fun.” She gave a wistful sigh and tucked her arms behind her head. “Sometimes I just want to be young and stupid again.”

“Don’t worry, Toph.” He smiled back, even though she couldn’t see. “We’re still plenty young and stupid.”

She tilted her head, so he could see her expression was a little sad. “But it can’t be like this forever.”

“Well, we have the grave misfortune of knowing the Avatar, so I have a feeling associated ‘responsibilities’ are going to find us eventually.” He tried to keep his tone light, but the words still felt heavy in the air.

She rolled softly towards him, lying on her side. “How about we pretend they won’t. At least just for a little while.”

“Excellent idea.” He did the same, so their faces were close again, their noses almost touching. “One of your finest.”

One corner of her mouth turned up. “I learned from a master idea guy.”

He leaned forward and kissed her again, although the melancholy was rising again in chest. His eyes were burning, and he brought an arm around her waist to pull her closer, a little desperation leaking into the kiss.

Just like that morning, he wanted so badly for this moment not to end. He didn’t want the sun to rise and make them face their real lives again, now that the quest was completed. He didn’t want things to change, to be complicated by new lives in the city. He had a feeling nothing would be simple anymore after tonight, even if he couldn’t bring himself to regret anything.

Of course, Toph always seemed to know what he was thinking. She broke the kiss gently, their foreheads still touching while they caught their breaths.

“Do you think it could ever work out between us?” she whispered. “Do you think there’s even a chance?”

He swallowed and and closed his eyes again. He thought, strangely, of Aunt Wu’s prediction, but then of the girl he’d seen in the swamp– the earthbender playing with a meteorite who looked a little like him and a little like her.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. Maybe it was foolish to believe in such an idea, or to hope for it, with all the uncertainties before them. But that didn’t stop him from bringing his hand behind her head, holding it gently to his. “But yeah, I think we have a chance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite the chapter title yes this is really the end (I know, I’m sad, too)
> 
> Their return to the scene of the airship battle was inspired by [La Mer](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3325559/22/Cactus-Juice) by Invaderk

**Author's Note:**

> In case you're curious about geography, I used [this map](https://external-preview.redd.it/D6COo3YmmcBYv5zwCHMdZO4kUjpczWZjNc-Td7cHH20.jpg?auto=webp&s=96e43204a9d64cee57ed9b0acda8f2e05106c180) to construct this journey :) 
> 
> I also want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who read and supported this story– it's definitely a little sad to see this one finished, but I'm definitely not done writing Avatar fics! So if you enjoy my writing, keep an eye out for more– both gen and Tokka :D 
> 
> Playlist  
> “It’s All I Know” - Monarchy  
> “Here We Are” - Patrick Park  
> "Maybe" - The Submarines
> 
> My tumblr these days is a multi-fandom disaster zone, but I do occasionally post fic updates and teasers there so if you're interested, I'm [cats-and-metersticks](https://cats-and-metersticks.tumblr.com/) :)


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